By Phil Stewart
PANAMA CITY, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. military has enough assets to maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday, adding ships could be rotated in and out of the region as needed.
Hegseth’s comments suggest he is advising U.S. President Donald Trump that the U.S. military can keep applying economic pressure on Iran for as long as needed to help so-far failed negotiations to end the conflict, begun in February.
“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.
He spoke in Panama after addressing the crew aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile destroyer, which had previously deployed to the Middle East.
Trump on Wednesday said the United States is 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 his Truth Social platform.
After the start of the war, which began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively shut the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas was previously shipped.
The U.S. subsequently 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 poured tens of thousands of troops into the Middle East since the war started, including more than 20 warships.
Since the blockade started, the U.S. military has redirected more than 55 commercial vessels that were attempting to run the blockade, including disabling three ships and boarding two.
Earlier this week, a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into a Panama-flagged ship’s engine room after it ignored warnings from U.S. forces, the military said.
Months of U.S. strikes, which have hit Iran’s leadership and damaged large parts of Iran’s military capabilities, including its Navy, have not broken Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has been striking back with missiles and drones against Washington’s allies in the region, while also targeting commercial ships transiting the strait without its permission.
Trump has repeatedly oscillated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent. So far, he has resisted some of the most escalatory steps like deploying ground troops or seizing strategic islands and bombing desalination plants.
Trump is under pressure to end a war that is deeply unpopular at home ahead of midterm elections in November, and high fuel prices are a top issue in rural areas that have backed him in the past.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Keith Weir and Andrea Ricci )
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