Iran Rejects Trump's 'Total Control' Claim Over Strait of Hormuz as Negotiations Stall
Iran's Basij Organisation commander Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb declared on August 13, 2026, that the Strait of Hormuz is under Iran's control and management, rejecting US President Donald Trump's assertion a day earlier that the United States had "total control" of the waterway. Taeb's remarks, quoted by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, came as Iran's joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, issued a parallel statement on the same day asserting that no vessel could transit the strait without Tehran's permission (Al Jazeera).
The competing claims reflect a six-month standoff that has effectively shut down one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints. Since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28, 2026, Tehran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas transited before the conflict. The US has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian shipping and ports while stating it would protect freedom of navigation for vessels travelling to and from non-Iranian ports (Al Jazeera).
Iran's position, articulated across multiple senior officials, is that the strait will remain closed until Washington meets its demands. Senior Iranian military and political official Rasoul Sanaei-Rad said Iran would not reopen the waterway unless the US fulfilled its commitments under the interim deal aimed at ending the war, and that reopening was not something the US could achieve unilaterally. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US "has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures," calling Washington's actions in the strait an even bigger miscalculation (Al Jazeera).
The diplomatic track has narrowed considerably since the June 2026 interim agreement between Iran and the US, which extended a ceasefire that had taken effect in April 2026 and called for a swift return to freedom of navigation in the Gulf. On August 5, sources indicated that a proposed Hormuz deal would give Iran control of inbound traffic, an arrangement that would constitute a major concession to Tehran (Reuters). By August 9, those hopes had faded. Trump demanded Iranian reparations, a new demand made in response to Iran's own call for compensation, with Trump insisting Iran must pay (Reuters).
Trump's August 12 claim of "total control" echoed his July 13 announcement that the US was reinstating a naval blockade on Iran and would be reimbursed 20% on all cargo shipped through the strait (Reuters). That proposed toll drew international condemnation. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the scheme "piracy" (IRNA).
The broader context here is a negotiation in which both sides have weaponized the strait's economic leverage while disagreeing on the fundamental question of who controls it. Iran's framing, consistent across civilian and military leadership since the war's early days, treats the strait as an asset it can open or close in exchange for US compliance with interim deal commitments. The US framing treats freedom of navigation as a baseline it can enforce militarily while extracting economic tolls from beneficiaries. An Iranian Vice President said in April that the security of the Strait of Hormuz "is not free of charge" (IRNA), and Iran's embassy in London mocked the UK's stance on the strait in the same period, saying Iran has maintained control since the early days of the war as part of its response to the aggression (IRNA).
The reparations dispute that emerged on August 9 effectively broke the August 5 framework before it could solidify. Both sides are now making maximalist public claims, Trump on August 12 and Iran's military and political leadership on August 13, while privately the negotiating channel appears to have produced demands rather than terms. The introduction of mutual reparations claims, with each side insisting the other must pay, adds a financial dimension to what had been primarily a security and navigation dispute.
Global energy prices have risen as the blockade persists, with no vessel traffic resuming under either party's terms. Iran said the strait would remain closed until the US meets its demands and changes its "behaviour" (Al Jazeera). A Russian analyst, quoted by Iran's IRNA, rejected Trump's ultimatum on the strait and said Iran is entitled to control it (IRNA).
The standoff leaves the interim agreement's call for a "swift return to freedom of navigation" unfulfilled, with both parties publicly claiming authority over the same waterway and privately deadlocked over who pays whom.
