Hegseth Says US Can Blockade Iran Indefinitely

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday the United States can keep its naval blockade of Iranian ports in place "indefinitely," as Reuters reported the oil supply shortfall from the conflict is deepening.

The claim landed the same day Iran's Basij commander Hossein Taeb declared the Strait of Hormuz "under the management and control of the Islamic Republic" — a direct contradiction of President Trump's social media claim a day earlier that the US has "total control" of the waterway.

Shipping data sides with neither. About 14 ships crossed the strait Tuesday, against a pre-strike daily average of roughly 130 — traffic down about 90%.

What "Indefinitely" Actually Means

Hegseth's word covers duration, not scope. Reuters and Al Jazeera both reported the Pentagon chief's assertion that the blockade of Iranian ports can be sustained without a set end date; neither report described an announced expiration, a stated objective for lifting it, or the legal authority the administration is claiming for it. That authority is not spelled out anywhere in the reporting on this story.

What is concrete is the hardware behind it. The Wall Street Journal reported the US is sending a fresh aircraft carrier to the Middle East, with the USS George Washington set to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed for more than 250 days.

And the Pentagon has put a price on the pressure: an assessment found the first US blockade cost Iran about $4.8 billion in oil revenue.