President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would designate the Strait of Hormuz, a global chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes, as a U.S. territory “soon,” as the situation remained at a military and diplomatic impasse.
Iran hit back, calling President Trump’s threats “nonsense” as a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries in June expires on Sunday.
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The Iranian government blocked this passage to use as a kill switch for the global economy, while the US government maintained a military naval blockade of Iranian ports, further choking Iran’s economy.
In an apparent game of who blinks first, President Trump has said that negotiations with Iran are “like chess,” but military rhetoric from U.S. presidents has also followed a pattern throughout the ongoing war, which began on February 28. On numerous occasions, the president has threatened to attack Iran, only to back down at the 11th hour.
So, could the United States actually claim the Strait of Hormuz as its own territory? And what exactly does that mean?
What did Trump say?
“Once we have defeated Iran, which has suffered a very bad defeat, we will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States,” Trump said in a speech at the New York Police Academy.
President Trump referred to a naval blockade and took the step of suggesting that the Strait of Hormuz is already US territory. “That’s essentially what it is,” he added.
“We have a blockade. No ships can pass unless we want to,” he said.
Iran claims control of the waterway, and despite U.S. claims, maritime navigation data shows some ships have passed through the strait despite the blockade.
“As the president of the United States laughs, it’s clear that even he himself doesn’t take this particularly seriously,” Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, D.C., said.
“These are the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. But what the president of the United States likes to do is get under the skin of his enemy, and in this case, that is Iran,” she said.
“But we must point out that the president of the United States has not backed down from the fact that there is a de facto naval blockade by the United States in the Strait of Hormuz, which continues today.
How did Iran react to this?
Several Iranian officials reacted sharply to President Trump’s remarks. The attorney general delivered fiery rhetoric, calling the US president a criminal and crazy, calling his comments “nonsense” and saying the Strait of Hormuz belongs to Iran.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Ghalibabadi responded by saying, “The Strait of Hormuz cannot be captured by tweets, aircraft carriers, orders or election speeches.”
He added: “The Strait of Hormuz has always belonged to Iran, and it will always belong to Iran. It can only be closed and opened under Iranian command. Unless it accepts the reality of defeat and stops fantasizing, Iran will continue to enforce its blockade.”
Meanwhile, Iran continues to hold talks with Oman, the strait’s other littoral state, to reach an agreement on the management of maritime traffic in the strait. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in comments carried by Iran Student News Agency that negotiations between Iran and Muscat “could reach a conclusion soon.”
But Aragushi said reopening the waterway was another matter and the United States needed to honor commitments made in a June memorandum that included lifting the naval blockade and sanctions against Iran.
This is Iran’s new position on the ongoing war, with Tehran now seeking US concessions solely for the purpose of reopening the waterway, which was originally a condition for ending the war.
Are President Trump’s claims practical?
First, sovereignty is not simply a matter of unilateral presidential declarations.
For example, President Trump previously threatened to send U.S. troops to Iran’s Kharg Island to capture Iran’s key oil export hub in the Gulf. In response, the Iranian government said its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was waiting for them with “finger on the trigger.” President Trump has previously threatened to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Bruce Fein, deputy assistant attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, said that constitutionally, Trump does not have the authority to annex on his own.
“As with the Louisiana Purchase, the annexation of Hawaii and the Panama Canal, or the acquisition of Puerto Rico and the Philippines to end the Spanish-American War, annexation of territory requires a constitutional treaty ratified by the Senate or statute.
If annexation were to proceed, it would be “a crime of war of aggression under international law, including the United Nations Charter,” Fein said.
“Basically, the only way President Trump’s claim could have any validity under international law is if the United States were asserting control of the straits as an occupying power, perhaps comparable to the powers it exercised over Japan in the immediate aftermath of World War II,” said Natalie Klein, an international law expert and associate dean at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
“But in that scenario, the United States would need to take military control of Iran, or at least its coastal areas.”
President Trump’s war on Iran is widely unpopular in the United States, where he and Republicans are trying to protect their slim congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, only 35% of Americans support war.
Several US media outlets have reported that the US government is lacking military supplies, including the critical Patriot anti-missile missile. Gasoline prices have also increased, now averaging more than $4 per gallon, and are a major problem for Americans.
Last week, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said the Trump administration’s top priority in the war was to limit rising gasoline prices, with stopping Iran’s nuclear arms race now secondary.
Iran has also attacked its Gulf neighbors, which analysts say is aimed at forcing regional countries to corner the United States at the negotiating table.
Even Iran does not enjoy unfettered sovereignty over the entire strait under international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but only some coastal areas near its borders.
UNCLOS recognizes the sovereignty of coastal states over their territorial waters, but limits them to 12 nautical miles (22 km) and says ships enjoy “unimpeded” rights of passage.
The Strait of Hormuz is located in international waters between the coasts of Iran and Oman. The strait is only about 21 nautical miles (39 km) wide at its narrowest point, and 12 nautical miles of territorial sea from both countries overlap across the strait.
Although neither the United States nor Iran have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, its rules on international straits are widely considered common law.
Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, said Trump typically makes such remarks primarily to American audiences, particularly his supporters.
He added that it’s important to remember that Trump is a product of American reality television and is, after all, a “showman.”
“He’s a big talker. You have to take him seriously in some cases, but not literally,” Musgrave cautioned.
He said Trump cannot be taken seriously, especially in this case, because it is physically and legally impossible to make the straits US territory. But the statement added that Trump is determined not to withdraw from Iran and accept defeat in the months-long war.
