U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order calling for more research and flexibility on vaccines in the Oval Office of the White House on August 10, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. Navy has cleared sea mines from the Strait of Hormuz and now has “100%” control of the waterway, making reparations the latest flash point between Washington and Tehran.
President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the U.S. Navy now has full control of the waterway. “It’s open now,” he said, adding: “Currently the United States is the only one in control of the Strait of Hormuz.”
He described the US posture as a “wall of steel” and said the situation had not changed despite Iran’s sporadic mine-laying. “They sometimes drop mines, and we find them,” he said. The United States has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports since mid-April.
Iranian officials say the Strait of Hormuz will be closed until the US agrees to Iranian demands, including lifting the naval blockade, while talks with Oman over a shipping deal will not lead to a full reopening of the waterway.
Seeking to turn the tide on Iran, President Trump said in a post on the U.S. side’s Truth Social early Tuesday that Iran’s demand for reparations for war damage offered an “interesting thought” and that Iran should instead compensate the United States for those killed and injured in roadside bombings and other attacks linked to Iran, as well as Iranian protesters killed by the country’s regime over the past 50 years.
Trump’s reparations demands pose new challenges after Iran on Saturday laid out its own conditions for reopening the strait, a vital strait that carried about a fifth of the world’s oil before the war.
Mohammad Bagher Zolgadol, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Saturday that the strait will not reopen until Washington lifts the naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws U.S. troops from the region, pays war reparations and releases frozen Iranian assets. The council also called for an end to U.S. attacks on Iran’s regional allies.
President Trump has signaled that he is prepared to allow growing economic hardship to take a toll on Iran rather than launch further military strikes.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday backed its economic response. Spokesman Esmail Bakaei responded to claims by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that US sanctions are “suffocating” Iran.
He said the U.S. government chooses sanctions whenever diplomacy fails and escalates sanctions when they don’t work, a pattern that has become more of an “obsession” than a “policy.”
This impasse has led Washington to treat its naval presence as a permanent installation that guarantees access, while the Iranian government treats that same presence as a major obstacle to normalization of traffic. Iran insists it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the US continues to block its ports.
Lloyd Chan, senior currency analyst at Bank of Mitsubishi UFJ in Singapore, said tanker traffic through the strait remains weak, energy supply disruptions remain a key market concern and Brent prices remain well above pre-conflict levels.
Although there is still the possibility of periodic flare-ups, a full-scale regional war is still not the fundamental situation, Zhang added.
Oil prices rebounded on Monday following the tough stance, reversing last week’s temporary decline. west texas intermediate crude oil Prices rose about 5% in September, settling at around $82.13 per barrel. brent crude oil A similar increase was seen at around $87.72. Crude oil rose slightly in Asian trading on Tuesday.
