Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfghari said the strait remained under the “full management and control” of Iran, according to Iranian state media. “No commercial vessel or oil tanker can or will have safe passage through the Strait without the permission and supervision of Iran’s powerful Armed Forces,” Zolfghari said.
Iran to act ‘more aggressively’ in 'possible future war', says Iranian general
Iran's Brigadier General Rasoul Sanaei-Rad said on Thursday that Iran will act more aggressively in the future, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Fars news agency.
“We stood firm in the recent war and, God willing, we will stand firmer and more aggressively in a possible future war,” Sanaei-Rad said, who currently serves as political adviser in the office of the supreme leader.
While not openly mentioning the US, he said Iran’s “enemy” was aiming to create internal divisions through economic pressure, but that its plan did not succeed.
Iran's Araghchi says US has long miscalculated war, Strait of Hormuz due to intelligence failures
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday said that the US had 'long miscalculated due to intelligence failures. Case in point: The war on Iran".He added that they were making an even bigger miscalculation "on the Strait of Hormuz."
"Worse than fake news is fake intelligence. Be careful."
The remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the US had "total control" of the strategic waterway.
German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd incurred around $600 million in additional costs in the second quarter due to the conflict in the Middle East, the company said on Thursday.
Hapag-Lloyd's group profit fell to $83 million in the April-June period from $306 million a year earlier, according to its quarterly earnings statement.
Group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) edged up to $829 million from $820 million, while operating profit declined to $176 million from $189 million.
The company said strong exports from Asia and improved demand in the US helped partially offset cost pressures stemming from the Middle East conflict.
In its Liner Shipping segment, operating profit fell to $153 million from $167 million, primarily as the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz generated additional costs for bunker fuel, insurance, storage, service rerouting and inland transportation.
Segment revenue rose to $5.7 billion, supported by higher transport volumes and freight rates.Transport volume increased to 3.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 3.4 million a year earlier, while the average freight rate climbed 9% to $1,475 per TEU.
"The second quarter was better than the first, driven by significantly higher spot rates and robust demand," CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said.
The company raised its full-year outlook in July, forecasting group EBITDA of between $2.7 billion and $3.7 billion and operating profit of $100 million to $1.1 billion.
Hapag-Lloyd cautioned that its outlook remains subject to considerable uncertainty due to volatile freight rates and the Middle East conflict.
Iran paramilitary unit head says Strait of Hormuz is under its control, Fars news reports
The Strait of Hormuz is "under Iran's control and management", the head of Iran's Basij paramilitary unit, Hossein Taeb, said on Thursday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency
Taeb said the United States had sought to disrupt what he described as the Islamic Republic's popularity in the region by launching another war in the Strait of Hormuz, but had once more been defeated despite claiming Iran had neither an air force nor a navy.
"Today you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic Republic," Taeb said, adding that Iran was continuing on its course in complete security
US ‘fallen into trap of Strait of Hormuz’: former Iranian diplomat
Former Iranian diplomat Abbas Khameyar said the US failed “the test of economic and military warfare” against Iran, emphasising that Tehran will not submit to American conditions or ambitions, according to Al Jazeera.
Khameyar said that the Strait of Hormuz served as a “deterrent card that has succeeded in changing the course of aggression and re-imposing the rules of engagement”.
Washington broke its previous commitments, he argued, adding that obligations could only be fulfilled through serious negotiations carried out in good faith.
According to the former diplomat, the US has ultimately “fallen into the trap of the Strait of Hormuz” in the process of the war.
Hormuz blocked until 'Iran's conditions are accepted': Persian Gulf Strait Authority
Iran rejected claims of US officials that the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz had been lifted, noting the waterway remained blocked until Tehran’s conditions were accepted.
“The successive claims and tweets by American officials about lifting the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz do not change reality; the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted,” the Persian Gulf Strait Authority said in a post on X early on Thursday.
Iran’s Araghchi slams France, other Western nations' ‘hypocrisy’ over human rights
Araghchi on Thursday slammed the "blatant and embarrassing" hypocrisy of "countries like France" over their stance on human rights and international law.
"Your backing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza—and aggression against Iran—has destroyed whatever moral high ground you imagined you had," he wrote in a post on X.
Baghaei stresses that all parties benefiting from Hormuz shipping have responsibilities to address damage
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has called for environmental protection to be made an integral part of any future administration of the Strait of Hormuz, citing recent oil pollution along the shores of Qeshm Island and calling out the "aggressors and their partners who have transformed the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman into a theatre for military operations and the testing of highly destructive weaponry".
In a post on X, Baghaei said videos had emerged in recent days showing oil pollution along Qeshm’s coastline. He said the pollution had drifted from the Persian Gulf toward the coast, with preliminary evidence pointing to a foreign bulk carrier as the source.
“Contamination has been documented at three coastal sites and across portions of the sea surface,” Baghaei said.
He described the incident as one visible manifestation of broader environmental damage affecting the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the region’s marine ecosystem over recent decades, which he said had caused trillions of dollars in damage to Iran’s coastal areas.
Baghaei questioned who should bear responsibility for compensating the damage, pointing to energy-consuming nations, shipping insurers, and countries involved in military operations in the region.
“As the country with the longest coastline along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iran cannot remain indifferent,” he said.
Baghaei argued that all parties benefiting from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have responsibilities to address environmental damage, stating: “Every party that benefits from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz carries both a legal and a moral obligation to remediate the environmental harm inflicted upon the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.”
Iran says no progress on reviving interim peace deal with US
Iran and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source, who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a time frame to implement it.
The comments came as Trump issued yet another broadside against Iran's leaders, dealing a further blow to hopes for a resolution to the crisis, following new attacks on shipping in the region on Tuesday.
The deal agreed in June declared an "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts", but quickly unravelled, with Trump saying it was "over" on July 7 and Iran's foreign ministry declaring it "suspended" a week later.
The US accuses Iran of failing to honour an agreement under the deal to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route. Tehran says Washington has reneged on its commitments, including lifting a blockade of Iranian ports and releasing frozen Iranian assets.
"One of the issues that is being discussed via mediators is the US returning to the interim agreement and defining a time frame for implementing the commitments. There has been absolutely no progress on this issue," the Iranian source said.
Trump said on Wednesday that the US has "total control" over the Strait of Hormuz.
But the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the body Iran set up to manage the waterway, said it remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted.
"Iran is all talk and no action, the Bully of the Middle East No Longer," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Throughout the conflict, Trump has alternated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent.
Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.
Iran has struck US assets and infrastructure in countries including Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The June interim ceasefire agreement set a 60-day period, extendable by mutual consent, within which Iran and the US were expected to reach a final deal limiting Tehran's nuclear program and lifting US sanctions.
The Iranian source dismissed a report on Wednesday from Turkey's Anadolu news agency that quoted Pakistani government sources as saying they had agreed to extend that 60-day period.
"There is no talk of an extension because, from Iran’s perspective, there is no period that began and therefore nothing to extend. The United States violated the interim agreement 48 hours after it was reached and withdrew from it a few days later," the source told Reuters.
The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman and the entrance to the Gulf, handled a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flow before the war.
Benchmark Brent crude futures have surged since the start of the war in February, hitting a peak of $126 a barrel, roughly 75% above pre-war levels, with choppy trade reflecting concerns over disruptions to Gulf oil supplies and shifting signals on peace talks.
On Tuesday, in separate incidents, a suspected and a US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles, the US military said.
Oil prices rose but then steadied in volatile trading on Wednesday, after forecasters cut projections for 2026 oil demand. Brent crude futures were trading at around $88 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude at around $83 a barrel.