"Can't Be Seized By A Tweet": Iran On Trump's 'Will Soon Declare Hormuz US Territory' Remark

Tehran on Saturday said the Strait of Hormuz "has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian", an assertion that came after President Donald Trump said the United States would "soon" declare the key energy waterway part of US territory.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi stressed that the strait -- Tehran effectively closed at the start of the Middle East war, will "only be closed and opened under Iran's command".

"Trump has said that after Iran's defeat, he will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz as US territory. The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by tweet, nor by aircraft carrier, nor by issuing an order, nor by an election speech," he said in a post on X.

"Once and for all, accept the reality: up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats... As long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease your fanciful delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade," he added.

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His reaction came hours after Trump said he would "finish defeating" Iran and "soon" declare the strait -- which is the world's most vital energy conduit -- part of US territory.

"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," he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in New York.

"It's true," he added.

Trump: After we finish defeating Iran, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States. pic.twitter.com/8cu9gem82b

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 14, 2026

He told the rally that paying "a tiny little bit more for your gasoline" is worth the cost of ensuring "a very evil country" could not have a nuclear weapon, one of his stated rationales for launching the war in February.

An unnamed White House official later clarified that Trump was joking, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump Claims "Total Control" Over Hormuz

Donald Trump on Wednesday had claimed that the US "has total control over the Strait of Hormuz".

"I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT," he said in a Truth Social post .

"Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, 'A WALL OF STEEL,' and there is nothing Iran can do about it," he added.

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The Iranian military, however, called Trump's claim "lies" and said the strategic waterway was fully under Iranian control. 

"The false claims of the United States that ships are passing through the Strait of Hormuz normally ... are nothing more than lies and fabrications," Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran's central military command, Khatam-al Anbiya, said in a video carried by state television.

"The Strait of Hormuz is, as in the past, under the complete management and control of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and no commercial ship or tanker without the permission and supervision of the powerful Iranian armed forces has had and will have the possibility of safe passage through this strait," he said.

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Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi also said the US makes miscalculations in regard to the waterway.

"The U.S. has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures. Case in point: The war on Iran. Now, an even bigger miscalculation on the Strait of Hormuz," he said on X.

The war in the Middle East broke out when the US and Israeli forces conducted joint strikes on Iran on February 28, killing a swath of the country's leadership, including the then 86-year-old Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. In response, the Iranian forces attacked American and Israeli assets in the Middle East.