Iran set out to close the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Navy is keeping it open.
About 97% of the ships that have tried to pass through the strait have made it without being hit by an Iranian projectile, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said, according to Fox News. “It is open, it is available for transit,” Hawkins said.
The strait is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, and Iran’s leaders have spent months trying to choke it off. CENTCOM says they are failing.
400 ships in a week
CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper gave fresh numbers on Friday. Nearly 400 commercial ships crossed the strait over the previous seven days, and U.S. forces helped Gulf partners move more than 100 million barrels of oil in that week alone, according to Shafaq News and Fox News.
In recent months, U.S. help has moved more than 1.3 billion barrels of crude through the strait, Cooper said.
Hawkins said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is “not achieving their objective of closing the Strait of Hormuz.” He said “the vast majority” of Iran’s attacks fail.
A “steel wall” around Iran
While American forces keep friendly shipping moving, they are also cutting off Iran. Hawkins said the U.S. is keeping a “steel wall blockade against Iran,” with no exports or imports reaching the country without U.S. permission. Humanitarian ships are allowed through.
CENTCOM said U.S. forces had redirected 138 commercial vessels as of Saturday to enforce the blockade of Iranian ports, Fox News reported. Cooper said Washington has blocked at least $25 billion in Iranian crude exports, money he said would otherwise pay for the Revolutionary Guard, its proxy militias and its military operations, according to Shafaq News.
More than 50,000 U.S. service members are now stationed across the Middle East, Hawkins said.
Iran’s attacks still cost lives
Iran has not stopped trying. On Wednesday, an Iranian projectile struck the GFS Pride, a Singapore-flagged container ship owned by a Cyprus company. The ship caught fire and later sank while being towed to shore, CENTCOM said.
Citing International Maritime Organization figures, Cooper said more than 20 civilian sailors have been killed in Iranian attacks on commercial shipping since February. Hawkins called the Revolutionary Guard’s actions “unjustified.”
An Iranian army spokesman, Mohammad Akraminia, said the strait would reopen “if America leaves the region,” Fox News reported.
Why it matters at the pump
Oil prices remain high. Brent crude settled Friday at $109.86 a barrel, and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate closed at $101.41, according to Reuters figures cited by Fox News. Traders pointed to trouble in the strait, Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and uncertainty over Russian energy.
Without the Navy, the picture would be far worse. Every tanker that gets through is oil that reaches world markets instead of sitting behind an Iranian blockade.
Trump: Iran “never will have” a nuclear weapon
At his Kentucky rally Saturday, President Trump said Iran “doesn’t have, and never will have a nuclear weapon,” according to Fox News. Earlier in the week, at a rally in Montana, he said Iran “doesn’t have a Navy” or an air force and that its army is “decimated.”
Trump has signaled that a deal could be close and has said Iran was “ready to fold up.” The war began in February with U.S. and Israeli strikes. A ceasefire in April and an agreement in June both broke down.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Tehran is not seeking nuclear weapons.
The bottom line
Iran bet that it could hold the world’s oil supply hostage and force America to back down. Eight months into the war, the opposite is happening. Ships are moving, Iran’s own exports are blocked, and the regime is losing billions it would have spent on terror.
That is what peace through strength looks like on the water. The Navy is protecting American interests and the global economy at the same time, while squeezing the regime that keeps firing on civilian ships.
The fight is not over, and the regime can still do damage. But the strategy is working, and Tehran knows it.