Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said the Strait of Hormuz would not remain open if the United States kept up what Tehran called a naval blockade, pushing back against President Donald Trump's claims that the vital waterway was fully open and that wider negotiations were close to a breakthrough.
In a series of posts on X late on early Saturday morning, Ghalibaf said the US President had made "seven claims in one hour", all of them false, and said Washington had failed to win the war "with these lies" and would not succeed in talks either. He added that passage through the Strait of Hormuz would take place only on a "designated route" and with "Iranian authorisation."
Ghalibaf also said the status of the strait and the rules governing it would be decided "by the field, not by social media", in an apparent response to Trump's posts saying the waterway was “completely open and ready for business”. Trump has also said the US blockade affecting Iran would remain in force until a broader agreement with Tehran was completed.
Ghalibaf has warned Trump that Tehran will close the Strait of Hormuz if the US continues its naval blockade,
Earlier on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz was "completely open" for all commercial vessels for the remainder of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, but said traffic would move on a coordinated route already announced by Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation. That suggested Tehran still intended to retain operational control over shipping through the chokepoint.
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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei later reinforced that message, saying in a televised interview that shipping through the strait must follow routes designated by Tehran and operate under full Iranian coordination. He warned that if the US maritime blockade continued, Iran would take reciprocal action.
The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flows, making any disruption a major concern for energy markets and global shipping.
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