Iran reportedly postures toward banning U.S., Israeli vessels in Strait of Hormuz
The war with Iran has grown increasingly contentious, as the regime has exercised ongoing aggression toward commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. A new report suggests Iran is trying to take it a step further.
by Summer Lane | August 7, 2026
A new report circulating amid Iranian state media has suggested that Iran’s parliament is reviewing a possible plan to block vessels from the United States and Israel from transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Citing the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Telegram, NPR reported that Iran was “finalizing” an agreement on shipping routes with Oman that could impose fees on commercial vessels that pass through the strait and further fine ships for violating Iranian regulations.
The ban on U.S. and Israeli vessels, per the report, would purportedly be enacted until Iran was compensated for war-related damages.
Securing the Strait of Hormuz fully has proven to be a difficult task. While the U.S. military has indeed imposed a blockade on the strait, blocking ships bound for or departing from Iranian ports, enemy aggression has repeatedly threatened commercial shipping.
A total ban on U.S. commercial vessels seems unlikely, given the reality that the U.S. Navy currently controls the entry and exit points of the strait via its blockade.
However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this week that the Strait of Hormuz is “never going back to the way it was, because the Iranians have used, or tried to use it, as a choke point.”
He argued that the strait would eventually become irrelevant, projecting that a large percentage of the world’s energy would simply be routed through underground pipelines, rather than on the water.
While that may indeed be true in the future, the Strait of Hormuz remains a sticking point in the present conflict.
Current marine vessel traffic data has revealed commercial shipping moving tenuously in the Strait of Hormuz as well as through Bab el-Mandeb (a Red Sea chokepoint that has additionally been threatened by Iranian proxies, the Houthis).
“It’s sort of open right now,” President Trump told reporters on Thursday on the Strait of Hormuz. “…We can control it, but they can always shoot something…or drop a mine, and if you have one mine out there you sort of mess things up, because people don’t want to take their billion-dollar boats and accidentally get hit by a mine.”
Despite the myriad of messages out there about the war, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday appeared to elevate the narrative that the United States has actually triumphed in the Middle East conflict.
He reposted a story titled “Trump Won the Iran War.”
“The spin doctors can spin whatever they damn well please, but the historians are going to write that Trump is the most consequential force in reshaping the Middle East in modern memory,” the article noted.
Photo: Pixabay
