The U.S. military has enough naval assets to maintain its blockade of Iran indefinitely, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday, signaling that Washington believes it can continue applying economic pressure on Tehran for as long as necessary.
“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 in Panama.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP)
He spoke after addressing the crew of the USS Gridley, a guided-missile destroyer that had previously deployed to the Middle East.
Hegseth’s comments suggest he is advising President Donald Trump that the U.S. military can sustain the blockade even as negotiations aimed at ending the conflict remain stalled.
Trump said Wednesday that the United States was in control of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” he wrote on Truth Social.
The war began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. Tehran subsequently effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas had previously passed.
The United States then imposed a naval blockade on Iranian shipping and ports while saying it would protect freedom of navigation for vessels traveling to and from non-Iranian ports.
Washington has deployed tens of thousands of troops to the Middle East since the fighting began, along with more than 20 warships.
Since the blockade was imposed, the U.S. military has redirected more than 55 commercial vessels attempting to breach it, including disabling three ships and boarding two.
Earlier this week, a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of a Panama-flagged vessel after it ignored warnings from U.S. forces, according to the military.