Trump says Hormuz mine-free as Iran, Oman agree to clear them
The US president again says Hormuz is clear of mines as Iran and Oman announce their plan to clear the strait.
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz had been cleared of explosive mines, citing the US Navy.
“I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday.
He added that Iranian officials had been notified that any “ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed,” adding that US Space Force elements are “watching every square inch of the strait.”
Why it matters: It was at least the second time Trump had made the claim over the past week. The president previously posted on Truth Social on Aug. 18 that Hormuz was "open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated."
An hour after Trump’s post on Tuesday, Oman’s Foreign Ministry announced that Muscat’s top diplomat had agreed with Tehran’s foreign minister on a plan for managing transits through Hormuz that will entail an effort “to clear the strait of mines.”
“The proposed framework includes the establishment of a joint temporary navigational corridor through the Strait of Hormuz and an agreement to implement a joint project to clear the strait of mines,” the ministry said in a statement, citing Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi’s meeting on Tuesday with Iran’s Abbas Araghchi.
The US military announced in April that it began sweeping for mines in and around Hormuz, employing destroyers and littoral combat ships equipped with new mine-countermeasures packages that included new autonomous undersea drones, just over a month after the US and Israel launched their joint war against Iran.
Know more: Trump has repeatedly publicly threatened military action against Oman — which has fallen out of favor with his administration as mediator to the conflict — if it should reach a deal with the Islamic Republic that would legitimize Tehran's control over the strait.
The US Navy has been quietly escorting commercial tanker ships via a channel that hugs Oman's coast along the southern shores of the strait in a surreptitious bid to keep petroleum supplies flowing to the global economy.
Former US military officials acknowledge that maritime demining is a notoriously painstaking process, with few guarantees that all munitions are recovered. The Strait of Hormuz is about 241,000 square kilometers (93,000 square miles) in area.
In March, Pentagon officials warned that Iran's ballistic missiles and drones — not naval mines — pose the key threat to Hormuz shipping. An unidentified projectile struck an oil tanker some 9 nautical miles northeast of the Omani coast at Ash-Shishan just after midnight on Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported, citing no casualties among the crew.
