Iran fires back at Trump's threat to declare Hormuz a US territory

Iran on Saturday fired back at US President Donald Trump's claim that he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory, saying the crucial energy waterway it has blockaded "will remain Iranian".

Trump has repeatedly said the strait, which Tehran effectively closed at the start of the Middle East war in late February, is under US control -- an assertion the Islamic republic denies.

"The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X.

"This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran's command."

Trump told a political rally in New York state on Friday that after the US defeats Iran, "pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States".

"It's true," he added.

A man waves an Iranian flag for a pro-government campaign under a billboard with graphic showing Strait of Hormuz and sewn lips of US President Donald Trump in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran. File/AP

An unnamed White House official later clarified that Trump was joking, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Last week, a top Iranian official laid out a laundry list of conditions for reopening the strait, including an end to the "war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq".

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr also demanded the end of crippling sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage.

Agence France-Presse