Iran tells US to accept defeat amid Trump's Strait of Hormuz threat

Iran has called on the United States to accept defeat in the ongoing war, after President Donald Trump threatened to declare the strategically important Strait of Hormuz a US territory.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on August 15 that Tehran would continue to control access to the waterway unless Washington accepted what he described as the reality of its defeat, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media. 

“This strait will be opened and closed only under Iran's command, and so long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” Gharibabadi posted on X.

He also rejected Trump’s threat to claim the waterway as US territory.

“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier, by issuing an order or by delivering an election speech,” Gharibabadi said.

Trump made the territorial threat while speaking at a police academy on Long Island, New York, on August 14.

“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said on August 14. “Essentially, that’s what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to.”

Meanwhile, progress toward peace talks remained stalled, with oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz also largely halted. The waterway handled about one-fifth of global oil supplies before the war began.

The confrontation comes nearly six months after the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28, with neither side showing signs of an imminent agreement to end the conflict.

By Sabina Mammadli