IRGC declares ‘decisive control’ of Strait of Hormuz as U.S. and Iran offer rival versions of who controls global oil chokepoint
DUBAI/TEHRAN — Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said on Friday that Iranian forces exercise “complete and decisive” control over the Strait of Hormuz, directly challenging U.S. assertions that internationally recognized shipping lanes through the world's most important energy chokepoint have been reopened. The IRGC rejected Washington's statements as false and said vessels would not be permitted to pass without coordination with Tehran, while the United States says its forces have cleared Iranian sea mines and restored access. Neither side's sweeping description, however, is fully reflected in commercial shipping data, which continues to show traffic far below normal levels.
The IRGC Navy said restrictions would remain until U.S. military operations against Iran end and what Tehran describes as outstanding commitments are implemented. Iranian officials have repeatedly insisted that passage through the strait cannot return to its pre-war status without an agreement addressing Tehran's security and economic demands. Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Thursday that Tehran was preparing a formal list of conditions for reopening the waterway after mediators pressed for progress, with previous demands including an end to restrictions on Iranian ports, compensation and sanctions relief.
Washington is presenting an almost opposite picture. U.S. Central Command said Thursday that American forces had cleared mines from internationally recognized shipping lanes, while President Donald Trump declared that the strait was open and that millions of barrels of oil were moving through it. The IRGC responded Friday by accusing U.S. officials of trying to influence oil prices and conceal what Tehran characterizes as Washington's failure to establish effective control of the waterway. Those are competing wartime claims, and neither should be treated independently as proof of unrestricted physical control.
Independent vessel-tracking data provides a more complicated measure. Preliminary figures from Kpler showed just seven commodity vessels transited Hormuz on Thursday, down sharply from 17 on Wednesday and below the previous 10-day average of 15. Four of Thursday's vessels were leaving the Gulf and three were entering. The count can change because some ships switch off their transponders, but the data reinforces a crucial distinction: clearing a navigational lane is not the same thing as restoring normal commercial shipping.
That distinction matters because the strait carried roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies before the war, making confidence among tanker owners, insurers and crews almost as important as physical access. Many commercial operators have remained reluctant to transit because of Iranian threats and the continuing risk of mines, missiles, drones or renewed military confrontation. The International Maritime Organization has separately warned of thousands of seafarers caught up in the disruption, illustrating why a military declaration that a route is navigable does not automatically produce a commercial decision to sail through it.
The new IRGC statement also lands at a sensitive diplomatic moment. Qatar's prime minister visited Tehran on Thursday and pressed Iranian leaders to restore freedom of navigation, while Pakistan and Qatar have been involved in efforts to revive negotiations. Iran has meanwhile discussed a potential temporary shipping corridor with Oman, whose waters form the southern side of the strait. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said this week that discussions envisage a new route involving Iranian and Omani waters, but stressed that negotiations over such an arrangement should not be interpreted as Iran agreeing that the strait is already fully reopened.
Rezaei said Iran and Oman had agreed on the concept of a designated corridor that could be used if Washington accepts Iranian conditions, though Reuters reported that details were still being negotiated. That creates an important contradiction inside the wider diplomatic picture: Tehran is simultaneously asserting military control, negotiating the mechanics of future passage and demanding political concessions before normal traffic resumes. Washington, meanwhile, says the physical route is already open while commercial traffic remains severely constrained.
The dispute has therefore evolved beyond the technical question of whether mines have been removed from a shipping lane. Control of Hormuz now has at least three different meanings: the ability of U.S. forces to clear and patrol navigational routes; Iran's ability to threaten, regulate or deter vessels attempting to use them; and the willingness of commercial operators and insurers to accept the risk of actually sailing through. Friday's shipping numbers suggest that military access has not yet translated into commercial normalization.
That gap could become one of the most consequential pressure points in the six-month U.S.-Iran conflict. Washington has increasingly shifted toward economic pressure on Tehran while regional mediators focus on Hormuz as a possible route toward a broader settlement. Iran, however, appears determined to preserve control over shipping as negotiating leverage rather than surrender it before receiving concessions. As long as that dispute remains unresolved, the world's energy markets face a chokepoint that may be physically passable in places but is still far from functioning as it did before the war.