US Navy Pries Hormuz Open; Oil Flows Climb

"We continue to grow the oil and oil products coming out of the (Persian) Gulf," Wright said. "The American Navy is doing a phenomenal job there."

James Holmes, chair of the maritime strategy program at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., said the aircraft carriers USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush enable a layered defense against Iranian missiles, speedboats and minelayers. "You don't really need a carrier to blockade Iranian tankers, but carrier aviation is highly useful for scouting and targeting enemy forces in the Strait of Hormuz," he said. He also warned of the cost: "There is a heavy price to keeping two flat-tops on station in one theater and running them that long."

Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, said Navy ships are not directly escorting vessels through the strait. Arab national fleet and leased tankers are making the passage with their location transponders switched off, transferring cargo to ships waiting in the Gulf of Oman, he said on a podcast hosted by shipping expert Sal Mercogliano. U.S.-facilitated transits are irregular and not daily but are becoming more frequent, he added: "There's a lot more volume going during the days that those convoys do pass through."

Iran is not signaling retreat. IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said this week that "the imposed war, which involved the world's most powerful nations, has ended in certain periods, but the nature of the conflict continues," adding that for the first time the conflict has "directly inflicted strategic damage on the United States." An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said security in the Strait of Hormuz cannot be guaranteed while U.S. "aggression" and the naval blockade continue, Tehran Times reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posting on X, congratulated Trump for keeping up the pressure and said the U.S. and Israel had achieved "historic progress" over the last year that left Iran and its allies "weaker than ever." "The people of Israel stand with the people of the United States and with President Trump in confronting the forces of terror," he said.