THE United States has warned it could maintain its naval blockade of Iran indefinitely, escalating economic pressure on Tehran as ceasefire efforts falter, tensions around the Strait of Hormuz intensify and the global oil supply outlook deteriorates.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US military could maintain a naval presence in the region for as long as necessary to enforce the blockade, which has inflicted severe economic damage on Iran.
"Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we'll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we'll continue to," Reuters reported Hegseth saying during a visit to Panama.
The warning comes as Iran seeks to tighten its control over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most strategically important shipping routes, and amid reports of attacks on vessels attempting to transit the waterway.
The UAE on Thursday accused Iran of attacking two vessels operated by state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) while they were transiting the strait. The UAE government condemned what it described as an Iranian attack.
The incidents come as commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen sharply since the war began in February.
Eight vessels passed through the waterway on Tuesday, compared with a 10-day average of about 12 vessels and between 130 and 140 vessels before the conflict.
Iran has rejected US President Donald Trump's repeated claims that Washington has "total control" of the strait, insisting that the waterway will remain closed until Tehran's conditions are met.
In a post on X, Iran said the US claims "do not change the reality. The Strait of Hormuz remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted."
Tehran's conditions include the removal of economic sanctions and the release of frozen Iranian assets.
The United States temporarily lifted its blockade of Iranian shipping and ports for a month in mid-June but later reinstated it, further restricting Tehran's access to hard currency while compounding losses from wartime attacks on its energy infrastructure.
Washington has previously said the blockade could be lifted once Iran and Oman, which lie on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, reach an agreement to restore commercial shipping.
The escalating confrontation is also threatening to deepen pressure on global energy markets.
The International Energy Agency on Wednesday forecast that global oil supply would fall by 4.3 million barrels per day, or about 4 per cent, this year. The latest forecast represents a deterioration from its projection just a month earlier, when it expected a decline of 3.7 million barrels per day.
The Strait of Hormuz is particularly critical to global energy markets, with roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas having passed through the waterway before the war.
Oil prices nevertheless settled more than 2 per cent lower on Thursday after a week of gains, as investors focused on weaker global demand expectations and a sharp rise in US crude inventories.
The market remained vulnerable to renewed geopolitical shocks, however, after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement said it had attacked a Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan with two drones.
The development revived concerns that the conflict could spread further across the region and threaten additional energy infrastructure.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intensify military strikes against Iran, although he has so far resisted deploying ground forces or taking control of strategic islands and desalination facilities.
Earlier this week, he indicated that his administration was placing greater emphasis on economic pressure rather than further military escalation.
The Republican president is facing growing domestic pressure to bring the war to an end, with higher fuel prices weighing on his approval ratings and potentially threatening his party's prospects in November's midterm elections.
Washington has continued tightening sanctions against Iran and individuals and entities it accuses of helping Tehran procure weapons, but the pressure campaign has so far failed to bring Iran back to negotiations.
Economists have warned that the longer the conflict continues, the greater the impact on global growth, with some regions potentially facing recession if the war is not brought to an end soon. - August 14, 2026
