Iran's Rezaei Says Strait of Hormuz Stays Closed Until U.S. Meets War-End Demands

On August 12, 2026, Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States ends its war and naval blockade, releases frozen Iranian assets, and agrees to a region-wide ceasefire covering Gaza and Lebanon. The statement came as ship traffic through the vital waterway fell to a near three-month low and President Donald Trump again claimed Washington has “total control” of the strait — a characterization Tehran rejected.

Editor’s note: This article draws on statements from Mohsen Rezaei and Iranian state media, President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts, shipping data reported by Reuters and Kpler, and coverage from Al Jazeera and BBC-linked regional reporting, August 12, 2026. Transit counts and oil-flow figures vary by data provider.

What Rezaei demanded

Rezaei, a former wartime commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), laid out Tehran’s conditions in a post on X late on Tuesday, August 12, and repeated them in his first major meetings as security council secretary.

Condition	Detail
End the war	Washington must halt its military campaign against Iran
Lift the blockade	U.S. naval enforcement around Iran’s southern ports must stop
Release assets	Frozen Iranian funds held abroad must be unfrozen
Regional ceasefire	A broader truce must include Gaza and Lebanon, not just Iran

“IRAN’s message is clear: The Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the U.S. ends the war and blockade, releases Iran’s frozen assets, and agrees to a region-wide ceasefire, including in Lebanon and Gaza. Until all conditions are met, the Strait will remain closed.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Rezaei told China’s ambassador to Tehran, Cong Peiwu, that Hormuz would not reopen “as long as the U.S. does not change its behaviour and accept Iran’s conditions,” according to Iranian media including Tasnim and Press TV. State media said Rezaei praised Beijing’s unwillingness to back U.S.-led resolutions targeting Iran at the United Nations.

Trump claims control; Iran pushes back

Trump doubled down on Wednesday, August 12, writing on Truth Social that “The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” — echoing a similar claim he made to reporters the day before as diplomacy stalled.

Iranian officials rejected that framing. Rezaei’s office and other senior figures said Tehran retains enough military capability to disrupt maritime traffic and that any technical arrangement with Oman over future transit routes would be separate from Washington — and would not by itself reopen the strait.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last week that talks with Oman on new shipping lanes were in their “final stages”, but Iranian leaders have insisted those negotiations do not amount to direct talks with the U.S. and do not override the broader closure linked to the war.

Hormuz traffic at a near three-month low

Commercial shipping through Hormuz — a chokepoint that normally carries roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas — has collapsed since U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, 2026.

Metric	Detail
Tuesday, Aug. 12	Eight vessels tracked transiting Hormuz (Reuters, citing Kpler data)
Five-day average	About 13 ships per day — near the lowest level since May 12
Pre-war baseline	Roughly 130–140 ships daily
Decline	Traffic down roughly 90% from pre-war levels

Reuters reported that only one vessel — a coal carrier — exited the strait on Tuesday, while seven others were still transiting, all using the Iranian route. Separate LSEG data showed 11 transits that day, down from 14 on Monday.

The slump followed the collapse of a June 17 interim deal that had briefly pushed crossings to about 60 ships per day before Washington and Tehran clashed over undefined shipping routes. Traffic on August 12 stood about 80% below that post-deal peak, according to trade-analytics reporting.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Tuesday that oil exports through Hormuz averaged nearly 9 million barrels per day over seven days, arguing private data undercounted flows. Independent analysts disputed that figure, and shipping trackers pointed to the single-digit daily vessel counts as evidence that normal commerce has not returned.

Diplomatic moves as talks stall

Rezaei’s statements landed amid a flurry of regional diplomacy:

• China: Rezaei met Ambassador Cong Peiwu on Tuesday in his first session as council secretary, urging closer ties and thanking Beijing for its stance at the U.N.
• Pakistan: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited Tehran as Islamabad continued mediation efforts alongside Qatar.
• Qatar: Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Doha had heard “positive statements” from both capitals in recent days, with reopening Hormuz and maintaining ceasefires as priorities.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has separately pressed for diplomatic solutions, but hard-line security figures including Rezaei — appointed after a leadership shake-up in the council — have signaled skepticism toward extending truces without meeting Tehran’s full list of demands.

U.S. naval enforcement continues

The U.S. military reported an overnight attack on Tuesday, saying a Navy helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at a Panama-flagged vessel to enforce its blockade of Iran’s southern ports. Pentagon statements described it as the 12th vessel attacked by U.S. forces since April and the third since fighting resumed after the June memorandum of understanding collapsed.

Attacks also continued elsewhere in the region, including reported strikes involving Yemen’s Houthis in the Gulf of Oman and the Bab al-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.

Why Hormuz matters

The strait connects Gulf producers — including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, and Kuwait — to global markets. Even partial closures force rerouting, insurance spikes, and pressure on energy prices.

Since February, major Gulf states have recalibrated export routes and land pipelines, but analysts say no combination of alternatives fully replaces Hormuz capacity at peacetime volumes. Rezaei’s conditions tie the waterway’s fate not only to U.S.-Iran terms but to wider wars in Gaza and Lebanon, making a narrow shipping deal harder to separate from the region’s broader conflicts.

---

Discussion

Hormuz has become both a battlefield and a bargaining chip — with daily ship counts now a rough measure of whether diplomacy is working.

1. Can a strait that carries a fifth of the world’s oil stay effectively closed without forcing major powers toward a wider settlement — or will economic pain eventually override political conditions?

2. If Iran and Oman finalize technical transit rules while Washington and Tehran remain at war, who actually “controls” Hormuz in practice — and does that match what either side is telling the public?

3. Should a ceasefire covering Gaza and Lebanon be a precondition for reopening a global energy corridor, or does linking those conflicts make an already difficult negotiation nearly impossible?

Share your read on where this standoff goes next — and what it means for fuel prices where you live.