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A senior Iranian military officer said Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, citing high U.S. gasoline prices as proof, as U.S. President Donald Trump predicted the Iran war would end "very soon" and that oil prices would "drop like a rock."
"The Strait of Hormuz is closed; if it were not closed, oil would be passing through it, and gas prices in the United States would not have increased," Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, the Iranian army’s coordinating deputy, told reporters in Tehran, according to the official IRNA news agency.
The competing claims come as attacks on ships in and around Hormuz continue and U.S.-Iran talks stall, with control of the waterway, which carried about a fifth of global oil and LNG trade before the war, at the center of the standoff.
Sayyari claimed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' naval forces hold strong positions west of the strait, while the Iranian army is deployed east of it and as far north as the Gulf of Oman, exercising "100% control and supervision" over the area.
"If any transit takes place, it must be coordinated; otherwise, you can see in the news what happens," he said, adding, "As long as these countries are seeking to secure gasoline and diesel, it means the Strait of Hormuz is closed."
"The Iran war will end very soon. Soon, as they want it to end," Trump told reporters in Montana late Wednesday.
"They’ll never have a nuclear weapon, and oil prices will drop like a rock," he added.
"They don’t have a navy. They don’t have an air force. Their army is decimated. Their leaders are gone," Trump told a rally.
"I should have probably left their leaders because I don’t know who the hell we’re negotiating with," he said.
Speaking at a rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, Trump said a strike on Iran had been called off after its timing leaked. "Leakers should be, in my opinion, leakers should be shot. In the old days, we used to shoot leakers," he said.
"To me, they’re the scum of the earth," Trump said.
The Atlantic reported on Oct. 7 that the Pentagon was developing strike options against Iran.
Trump said the next day the U.S. would not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament speaker and the top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Iran must prepare for war even as it negotiates with Washington, warning a signed deal is no guarantee. "They break their promises," he said.
"America must be punished. America must change its behavior," the Iranian official said.
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