•An oil tanker off the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas
The US military insisted yesterday that ships are moving through the Strait of Hormuz despite Iran’s claim to have closed it in the latest flare-up of the Mideast war.
“Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing,” CENTCOM, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, said on X.
In a later post, CENTCOM directly mentioned and challenged an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps statement that the vital conduit for global oil flow was closing, reports AFP.
But the US military said the strait “remains an international waterway. US forces are positioned and prepared to keep it that way.”
As it announced the strait was closing, Iran also attacked US-allied Gulf neighbors in response to the latest series of US strikes on Iran, further endangering a deal that was supposed to halt the war while negotiators seek a definitive agreement to end it.
