US President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order calling for more vaccine research and flexibility, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, August 10, 2026. Jim Watson | AFP | Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump said on Monday that the US Navy had cleared the Strait of Hormuz of mines and is now in “100%” control of the waterway, with repairs emerging as the latest point of tension between Washington and Tehran. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the US Navy now has full control of the waterway. “It’s open now,” he said, adding that the United States was “the only one in control of the Strait of Hormuz right now.” He described the U.S. posture as a “wall of steel” and said the sporadic laying of Iranian mines has not changed that. “Sometimes they drop a mine and we find it,” he said. The United States has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports since mid-April. Iranian officials have insisted that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States agrees to their demands, including lifting its naval blockade, while their talks with Oman on a shipping deal would not lead to a full reopening of the waterway. In an attempt to turn the tables on Iran, Trump, in a Truth Social post early Tuesday in the United States, said Tehran’s demand for reimbursements for war damages gave him “an interesting idea”: that Iran should instead compensate the United States for people killed or injured in highway bombings and other attacks linked to Iran, as well as for Iranian protesters who he said have been killed over the past 50 years by the country’s regime. Trump’s demand for reparations has introduced a new point of friction after Iran set its own conditions for reopening the strait on Saturday, a vital waterway that carried about a fifth of the world’s oil before the war. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Saturday that the strait will not reopen until Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws U.S. forces from the region, pays war reparations and releases frozen Iranian assets. The council also called for an end to US attacks on Iran’s regional allies. Trump has signaled that he was willing to let growing economic difficulties take their toll on Iran rather than launch more military strikes. Iran’s Foreign Ministry reacted on Tuesday on the economic front. Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei responded to claims by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that US sanctions were “suffocating” Iran. He said Washington opts for sanctions when diplomacy fails and escalates them when they don’t work, a pattern he said has become less of a “policy” than a “compulsive addiction.” The impasse leaves Washington treating its naval presence as a permanent element that guarantees access, while Tehran treats that same presence as the main obstacle to normalizing traffic. Iran has insisted that it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the United States continues to blockade its ports. Disruptions to energy supplies remain a key market concern, and tanker traffic through the strait is still subdued, said Lloyd Chan, senior currency analyst at MUFG Bank in Singapore, noting that Brent prices remain well above pre-conflict levels. While periodic flare-ups remain possible, a full-blown regional war is not yet the base case, Chan added. Oil prices rose on Monday on tougher rhetoric, reversing a brief decline last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for September rose about 5% to settle near $82.13 a barrel, while Brent crude rose by a similar margin to around $87.72. Oil rose slightly on Tuesday in Asian trading. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
