Trump claims the US Navy has cleared mines and now has “100%” control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran says the waterway will remain closed until the US lifts its naval blockade and meets its demands.
Trump’s reparations demand adds another dispute as tanker traffic remains subdued and oil prices rise.
US President Donald Trump has claimed that the US Navy has cleared mines from the Strait of Hormuz and now has complete control of the waterway, while calling for Iran to compensate the United States for deaths and injuries he attributed to Tehran.
Trump’s claim that the strait is open contrasts with Iran’s position that the waterway will remain closed until Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws US forces from the region and meets Tehran’s other demands, including payment of war reparations.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said the US Navy had swept the Strait of Hormuz clear of mines and now held “100%” control of the waterway.
“It’s open now,” he said, adding that the US was “the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now.”
Trump described the US military position as a “steel wall” and said occasional Iranian mine-laying had not changed the situation. “They will, on occasion, drop a mine, and we find the mine,” he said.
According to PTI, the US has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports since mid-April. Iranian officials have continued to insist that the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until Washington agrees to Tehran’s demands. Iran has also said its discussions with Oman over a possible shipping arrangement would not result in the waterway being fully reopened.
In a Truth Social post early Tuesday stateside, Trump said Iran’s demand for war-damage reimbursements had given him “an interesting idea”. He said Iran should instead compensate the US for people killed or wounded in roadside bombings and other attacks linked to Iran, as well as Iranian protesters he said had been killed by the country's regime over the past 50 years.
Trump’s counter-demand came after Iran laid out its conditions for reopening the strait on Saturday. The waterway carried roughly a fifth of the world's oil before the war, while disruptions to tanker traffic have remained a key concern for energy markets.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the strait would remain closed until Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws American forces from the region, pays war reparations and releases frozen Iranian assets. The council also called for an end to US attacks on Iran's regional allies.
Trump has signalled that he is prepared to let the mounting economic distress take its toll on Iran rather than launch further military strikes, PTI reported.
Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday rejected US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's claim that American sanctions were “suffocating” Iran. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Washington resorts to sanctions whenever diplomacy fails and escalates them when they do not work.
Baqaei said the approach had become less a “policy” than a “compulsive addiction.”
PTI reported that the impasse has left Washington treating its naval presence as a permanent fixture guaranteeing access through the waterway, while Tehran regards the same presence as the main obstacle to restoring normal traffic. Iran has maintained that it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the US continues to blockade its ports.
Energy supply disruptions remain a concern, with tanker traffic through the strait still subdued, said Lloyd Chan, senior currency analyst at MUFG Bank in Singapore. He noted that Brent prices remained well above pre-conflict levels.
Chan said periodic flare-ups remained possible, but a full-blown regional war was still not the base case.
Oil prices rose on Monday as rhetoric around the standoff hardened, reversing a brief decline last week. West Texas Intermediate crude for September gained about 5% to settle near $82.13 a barrel, while Brent crude rose by a similar margin to around $87.72. Oil prices were slightly higher in Asian trading on Tuesday.
