President Donald Trump on Friday mentioned he would designate the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the US “fairly quickly” because the standing of the waterway, a worldwide chokepoint via which a fifth of world oil and fuel passes, stays underneath a army and diplomatic impasse.
Iran has fired again, dubbing Trump’s threats as “nonsense” because the memorandum of understanding signed between the 2 in June expires on Sunday.
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Tehran has blocked the passage to leverage it as a worldwide economic system kill swap, whereas Washington has maintained a army naval blockade in opposition to Iran’s ports, choking its economic system additional.
Within the obvious sport of who blinks first – although Trump says negotiation with Iran “is like chess” – the US president’s army rhetoric has additionally adopted a sample all through the continuing conflict, which started on February 28. On many events, he has threatened to assault Iran solely to tug again on the eleventh hour.
So, can the US really make the Strait of Hormuz its territory? And what does that even imply?
What has Trump mentioned?
“After we end defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, fairly quickly I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the US,” Trump mentioned throughout a speech at a police academy in New York.
Referring to the naval blockade, Trump went a step additional to counsel that the Strait of Hormuz is already a US territory. “Basically, that’s what it’s,” he added.
“Now we have the blockade. No ships get via until we wish them to,” he mentioned.
Iran maintains that it controls the waterway — and regardless of the US claims, some vessels have transited the passage regardless of the blockade, maritime navigation information exhibits.
“It’s clear the US president, with a chuckle as he mentioned that, even himself, is just not taking this significantly significantly,” mentioned Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC.
“These are the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. However what the US president likes to do is get underneath the pores and skin of adversaries, and, on this case, it’s Iran,” she mentioned.
“What we must always level out, although, is what the US president is just not backing down on is the actual fact that there’s a naval blockade by the US in impact within the Strait of Hormuz, and that’s ongoing.
![Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has blamed the US for a reutrn to violence in the Strait of Hormuz, and said new paths will be required to reach a lasting peace. [File: Elke Scholiers/Getty Images]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/getty_6a7fd502e4-1786762498.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C514&quality=80)
How has Iran reacted to it?
A number of Iranian officers have sharply reacted to Trump’s remarks. The pinnacle of the judiciary got here out with livid rhetoric, calling the US president legal and feather-headed, his remarks “nonsense” and saying the Strait of Hormuz belongs to Iran.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy international minister, additionally responded, saying, “The Strait of Hormuz can’t be seized by tweet, nor by plane service, nor by issuing an order, nor by an election speech.”
“The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and can stay Iranian; this strait will solely be closed and opened underneath Iran’s command, and so long as you don’t settle for the truth of defeat and stop your fanciful delusions, Iran will proceed to implement the blockade,” he added.
In the meantime, Iran has been holding talks with Oman, the one different coastal nation within the strait, to achieve a settlement on the administration of maritime site visitors within the strait. International Minister Abbas Araghchi, in feedback carried by the Iranian College students’ Information Company, mentioned negotiations between Tehran and Muscat “might attain a conclusion quickly”.
The reopening of the waterway, nonetheless, is a separate problem, Araghchi mentioned, the place Washington has to stick to guarantees made within the June memorandum of understanding, together with removing of the naval blockade and sanctions on Iran.
That’s the new Iranian place on the continuing conflict, the place Tehran is now searching for these US concessions for mere reopening of the waterway, which had been initially circumstances for ending the conflict.
Is Trump’s declare even sensible?
First, sovereignty doesn’t trade arms over a mere unilateral presidential proclamation.
For example, Trump had earlier threatened to ship US boots to Iran’s Kharg Island to take over the important thing Iranian oil export hub within the Gulf. Tehran then responded by saying that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps can be ready for them, “with fingers on the set off”. Trump had beforehand additionally threatened to take over Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Bruce Fein, affiliate deputy legal professional common underneath President Ronald Reagan, says Trump is constitutionally powerless to annex on his personal.
“A treaty ratified by the Senate or statute is constitutionally required to annex territory, as with the Louisiana Buy or annexation of Hawaii or Panama Canal or acquisition of Puerto Rico or the Philippines in ending the Spanish-American Battle.
If he goes forward with annexation, Fein says, it could “represent the crime of aggressive conflict underneath worldwide regulation, together with the UN Constitution”.
Natalie Klein, a specialist in worldwide regulation and affiliate dean on the College of New South Wales, Sydney, mentioned, “Basically the one manner Trump’s declare may have any plausibility underneath worldwide regulation can be if the US was asserting management over the Strait as an occupying energy maybe similar to the authority the US exercised over Japan instantly after World Battle II.”
“However in that state of affairs, the US would want to have army management over Iran or at the very least its coastal areas.”
Trump’s conflict on Iran can be extensively unpopular within the US, the place the president and his fellow Republicans are searching for to defend their slim congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections. Barely 35 % of Individuals approve of the conflict, in response to a Reuters/Ipsos ballot.
A number of US media publications have reported that Washington is working brief on munitions, together with the essential Patriot antimissile interceptor. Petrol costs have additionally elevated, and are actually averaging greater than $4 a gallon – a significant problem for Individuals.
Final week, US Vice President JD Vance mentioned the Trump administration’s high precedence within the conflict was to manage rising petrol costs, whereas stopping Iran’s supposed race to a nuclear weapon now comes second.
Tehran has additionally attacked its neighbours within the Gulf, which analysts say are geared toward forcing the regional nations to push Washington right into a nook on the negotiating desk.
Even Iran doesn’t get pleasure from unfettered sovereignty over the strait as an entire, underneath worldwide legal guidelines, together with the UN Conference on the Legislation of the Sea (UNCLOS), however just some coastal websites close to its personal borders.
The UNCLOS recognises coastal-state sovereignty over territorial waters, however limits that territorial sea to 12 nautical miles (22km), and notes that ships get pleasure from a proper of passage that “shall not be impeded”.
The Strait of Hormuz is in worldwide waters, sandwiched between the coasts of Iran and Oman. At its narrowest level, the strait is barely about 21 nautical miles (39km) extensive — and the 2 nations’ 12-nautical mile territorial seas overlap throughout it.
Whereas neither the US nor Iran has ratified UNCLOS, the conference’s guidelines on worldwide straits are extensively thought to be customary regulation.
Paul Musgrave, an affiliate professor of presidency at Georgetown College in Qatar, mentioned Trump normally makes such statements primarily to talk to a US viewers, particularly his help base.
It is very important bear in mind, he added, that Trump is a product of US actuality TV and is, on the finish of the day, a “showman”.
“This can be a man who speaks large. You must take him significantly in some circumstances however not actually,” Musgrave cautioned.
Trump can’t be taken significantly, particularly on this case as a result of making the strait US territory is bodily and legally unattainable, he mentioned. However the statements do present that Trump is set to not again down from Iran and settle for defeat within the months-long conflict, he added.
