TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / August 17, 2026
Iran says US forces will not be allowed to restore their former regional presence as commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz collapses.
Iran has begun implementing a decision to drive US forces from the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters and will not permit American military bases in the region to return to their previous status, Iran’s army chief has said.
Major General Amir Hatami, commander-in-chief of the Iranian Army, said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump had made a “grave mistake” when he declared his intention to make the Strait of Hormuz US territory.
Trump later described the statement as a joke, according to Al-Mayadeen, but Hatami said the subsequent retreat did not diminish its seriousness.
The Iranian commander said Tehran had begun implementing its decision to expel US forces and that American forces would no longer be permitted to enter the Gulf, the Sea of Oman or the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran, he added, would not allow US bases to return to their previous condition.
“Those who approach Iran will be crushed by its defenders,” Hatami said, warning that another US mistake would make Washington “an example for others throughout history.”
‘Hormuz is Iranian’
Hatami described the Strait of Hormuz as a strategic asset belonging to the Iranian people and indicated that Tehran now views control over the waterway as part of the security architecture it intends to establish following the war.
The strait “will not return to what it was before,” he said, adding that Iran would defend it with all its strength and under the orders of the country’s supreme commander.
Hatami argued that whatever cost Iran pays to maintain its position in Hormuz “is worth it.”
He also linked the waterway directly to negotiations over ending the war, saying Hormuz had become one of Iran’s fundamental conditions for an agreement that would eliminate the threat against the country.
His comments represent the latest in a series of increasingly categorical Iranian statements rejecting US claims of control over the strategic waterway.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said Saturday that Hormuz “was Iranian, is Iranian now, and will remain Iranian,” insisting that its opening and closure would occur only on Iran’s orders.
Shipping nearly stops
The political confrontation is being accompanied by a dramatic contraction in actual maritime traffic.
Ship-tracking data from commodities intelligence firm Kpler showed that only five commodity-carrying vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, according to the report.
On Sunday, none were detected crossing the waterway. That compared with 31 vessels during the equivalent period a week earlier.
The Saturday traffic included an empty very large crude carrier whose automatic identification system was switched off and a large India-flagged gas carrier that used the Iranian route.
Before the US-Israeli war on Iran began in February, more than 130 vessels reportedly crossed Hormuz each day.
Shipping appeared to slow further after the United Arab Emirates announced that three vessels operated by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ADNOC, had been attacked while transiting the strait the previous week.
The developments have added another layer of uncertainty for commercial operators using a waterway that, before the war, carried roughly one-fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Navigation Talks
At the same time, Iran is pursuing a separate diplomatic track with Oman aimed at developing a mechanism for navigation through the strait.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced Saturday that Tehran and Muscat had reached an understanding on what it described as a “navigation traffic map.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said consultations between the two countries toward a joint mechanism for managing navigation through Hormuz were proceeding at a “steady and positive” pace, despite what Tehran describes as US obstruction.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has previously said the agreement with Oman had reached its final stages.
Crucially, however, Tehran has repeatedly distinguished an Iranian-Omani navigation arrangement from the broader political decision over reopening Hormuz.
Araghchi has said that reaching an agreement with Muscat would not, by itself, mean that the strait would reopen.
That position suggests Tehran views technical arrangements governing maritime movement and the political conditions for restoring wider navigation as two separate issues.
The negotiations were also discussed at the highest levels of the Iranian government over the weekend.
During a government meeting on Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian provided a report on his recent meeting with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and discussed major issues facing the country.
Araghchi separately briefed the government on developments and progress in negotiations with Oman.
(Iranian Media, Al-Mayadeen, TPC)
