Hegseth says Navy can rotate ships to sustain operation as Bessent signals additional measures against Tehran next week
WASHINGTON — The United States can maintain its naval blockade of Iran indefinitely by rotating warships through the region, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday, as the Trump administration signaled a new round of economic measures aimed at increasing pressure on Tehran while efforts to secure a ceasefire remain stalled.
“Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama.
His remarks amounted to one of the clearest indications yet that the Pentagon is preparing for a prolonged maritime operation rather than treating the blockade as a short-term measure tied to an imminent diplomatic breakthrough.
The United States has used naval forces to restrict shipping to and from Iranian ports while seeking to preserve passage for non-Iranian commercial vessels through the region.
The blockade has become a central element of President Donald Trump’s strategy for pressuring Tehran as negotiations have struggled to produce a lasting settlement.
Washington is preparing to intensify that pressure beyond the military operation.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that additional economic measures against Iran would be announced next week.
“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” Bessent told Newsmax.
The statements from the Pentagon and Treasury Department point to a coordinated strategy: maintain military pressure on Iran’s maritime trade while further restricting Tehran’s access to the international financial system.
Trump has increasingly emphasized economic pressure as his administration weighs how to deal with Iran without immediately returning to a broader campaign of military strikes.
The president said earlier this week that Washington was “low keying it” with Tehran and watching the economic strain inside Iran while negotiations continued only at a limited level.
The maritime confrontation, however, remains volatile.
Iran has sought leverage by restricting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with global markets.
Before the conflict, roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas moved through the strait.
Shipping through Hormuz has fallen sharply during the confrontation, increasing pressure on global energy supplies and exposing Gulf states to the consequences of the U.S.-Iran standoff.
The United Arab Emirates on Thursday accused Iran of attacking two vessels operated by the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company as they transited the strait. No injuries were reported.
Tehran and Washington have also issued competing claims over control of Hormuz.
Trump has said the United States has “total control” of the waterway, while Iranian officials insist that passage remains subject to Tehran’s authority.
The U.S. blockade and Iran’s restrictions on Hormuz are separate but interconnected elements of the confrontation: Washington is seeking to constrain shipping linked to Iranian ports, while Tehran has used its position along the strait to disrupt broader maritime traffic and increase the economic cost of the conflict.
The Trump administration has shown no indication that it intends to ease its blockade without significant concessions from Tehran.
Hegseth’s comments make clear that the Pentagon believes it has the naval capacity to sustain the operation even if the confrontation extends well beyond current diplomatic efforts.
Bessent’s warning points to the other half of Washington’s strategy.
Rather than setting a deadline for the pressure campaign, the administration is preparing to make it more severe.
For Tehran, that means the next stage of the confrontation could involve a continuing U.S. naval blockade alongside an expanding campaign of financial and economic isolation.