United States President Donald Trump has announced plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory” of his country as tensions boil with Iran. Speaking in New York on Friday, Trump told supporters that the US would soon claim the vital waterway, which is critical for the global supply of oil, natural gas and fertiliser. Since February 28, the US and Israel have been at war with Iran, after launching a series of aggressive strikes.
But Iran responded by restricting traffic through the strait, which formerly served as an artery for roughly 20 percent of the global oil supply. The strait was unrestricted before the war, but control over the waterway is now a major sticking point in ceasefire negotiations between the US and Iran. It has also been the site of renewed fighting in recent months.
In June, the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to bring a stop to military operations in the war, but one of the agreement’s terms was for Iran to make its “best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels”. Both sides later claimed violations of the memorandum, and fighting resumed by the end of the month. The US and Iran have settled into a pattern of uneasy negotiations that have brought down the intensity of fighting across the Middle East, but have failed to satisfy either side or bring the war to a decisive end.
Iran has continued to target commercial vessels in the strait, claiming that part of the strait falls within its territorial waters and therefore remains under its control. The US, meanwhile, has established its own blockade in the strait. Just this week, it fired on a cargo vessel it accused of attempting to reach Iranian ports.
In Friday’s speech, delivered to a gathering of law enforcement officials, Trump touted the blockade as impenetrable, and he framed it as a public service for countries that rely on traffic through the strait. Not only for ourselves, for the world,” he said. It’s a wall of steel.” Trump was in New York to support Republican candidates for the 2026 midterm elections, a pivotal moment for his administration.
Republican control of the US Congress hangs in the balance. At the rally, Trump repeated his declarations of victory over Iran, even though the war has continued with no clear end in sight. The war remains widely unpopular in the US.
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