Trump calls Strait of Hormuz 'American territory' as Iran allows Iraqi tankers to pass through the route
The US President made jokes about bombing Iran while Tehran facilitated the passage of vessels carrying Iraqi oil through the Strait
Donald Trump has called the Strait of Hormuz "an American territory" while Iran said it would allow Iraqi tankers to pass through.
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The US President's administration has struggled to end its war with the country and achieve its objectives, such as dismantling Iran's nuclear programme and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.
“We don’t even know if we won, because I view the Strait of Hormuz as an American territory right now,” Mr Trump said, addressing a crowd in South Carolina.
Later he joked about bombing Iran: "It’s a Friday night. We have plenty of time,” he said.
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“What the hell do I have to do? Go back and bomb Iran a little bit more?”
As of Friday, US forces have redirected 68 commercial vessels to comply with the blockade, the US Central Command (Centcom) wrote on X.
U.S. Sailors observe an MH-60R Sea Hawk landing on the flight deck aboard USS Ross (DDG 71). Ross is one of more than 20 warships supporting the U.S. blockade against Iran. As of Aug. 21, U.S. forces have redirected 68 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure… pic.twitter.com/kpNJ8TzEqC
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 21, 2026
Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait. Before the war, that figure was 20 million per day or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.
US attacks have severely diminished Iran's economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.
Mr Trump threatened to declare the strait a US territory last week.
“Essentially, that’s what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to,” he said in a speech at a New York police academy.
“We control it with the blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” he told reporters on Monday when asked about that comment.
Iran, meanwhile, has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait, according to Iran’s state news agency, IRNA.
IRNA said this was one of Baghdad’s main requests during the Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf’s visit to Iraq.
Iraqi President Nizar Amedi said on Saturday that Iran had facilitated the passage of vessels carrying Iraqi oil through the Strait in recent days.
He added that Baghdad had discussed the export of Iraqi oil through Hormuz with Iranian officials.
The issue remained complicated, he said, while speaking at the Baghdad Dialogue policy conference.
Iraq has been among the countries most affected by Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Baghdad is working to expand its exports through Turkey's Ceyhan port and also to begin exporting oil through Syria's Baniyas port and Jordan's Aqaba port, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said on Friday.
Traffic in the strait remains significantly below pre-war levels and ships continue to face attacks in the area.
Iraq produced around 4 million barrels of oil per day before the outbreak of the Iran war.
The US and Iran have exchanged defiant messages ahead of Monday's scheduled announcement of new US economic sanctions.
As the war neared six months old, the two sides were not exchanging fire but also not pursuing peace talks.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a press conference on Monday evening amid promises to reveal "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran while also urging China to cooperate with Washington.
China buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing urged diplomacy.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday that the imminent US announcement of new economic sanctions on Iran was an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations."
"Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law," he said in a post on X.
Mr Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides "any type of lifeline to Iran," said on Friday that Washington was observing "what happens" in the conflict.
"They would love to make a deal, but they're not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion," Trump said of Iran.