US military claims Strait of Hormuz remains open amid ongoing blockade
The comments from a US CENTCOM spokesperson come amid continued tensions over shipping through the vital waterway.
Despite an ongoing blockade on Iranian maritime trade and attacks by Iran’s military on commercial ships, the United States military has said US forces have kept the Strait of Hormuz open to commercial shipping, including the facilitation of hundreds of millions of barrels of oil through the strategic waterway.
On Wednesday, US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for US Central Command (CENTCOM), said traffic through the strait “continues to flow” while rejecting the suggestion that Iran controls the waterway.
The US and Iran have continued to make competing claims about who has greater control of the critical Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.
“The strait is open. Those lanes are open. And that is why commercial vessels continue to flow through them.”