No commercial ship can safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s permission and supervision, an Iranian Armed Forces spokesperson reiterated on Thursday. He dismissed the United States’ claims of control over Hormuz as proof of the “desperation and helplessness” of its military. The spokesperson said the Iranian military continues to monitor the movements of the US and Israel in the region, threatening that it will “respond to any threat, of any kind and at any level, with a more crushing and severe response than before.”
Hossein Taeb, head of the paramilitary Basij forces affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, stated on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz is “under Iran’s control and management,” a day after US President Donald Trump claimed that the United States had “total control” of the vital waterway. “Today, you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic Republic, and our country continues on its path in complete security,” the newly appointed leader of Iran’s Basij paramilitary group added, according to state television. Taeb went on to say that the US had launched another war in the Strait of Hormuz in an attempt to undermine what he called the Islamic Republic’s “popularity” in the area but had once again been defeated despite alleging Iran had neither an air force nor a navy.