US vows ‘indefinite’ Iran blockade and more economic pressure

The United States (US) has said that it could maintain a naval blockade ​of Iran indefinitely and would ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran as ceasefire talks have floundered, global oil supply is dropping, and regional tensions are rising.

Defense ‌Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the US military can maintain a naval presence in the region to enforce its blockade of Iran, which has inflicted severe economic damage on the country.

“Indefinitely, the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters during a trip to Panama.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday ​that the United States planned to inflict more financial damage on Iran.

“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like ​have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” he said in an interview on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” program.

With a ⁠tentative June deal to end the war in tatters, Iran has sought to exert leverage on Washington in return by controlling the Strait of Hormuz.

It has attacked some vessels trying to ​transit the strategic waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas travelled before the war began in February.

Two vessels from the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ​were attacked while transiting the strait on Thursday evening, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

The United Arab Emirates government condemned it as an Iranian attack.

US President Donald Trump is under pressure at home to end a deeply unpopular war, with high fuel prices dragging down his approval ratings and potentially eroding his party’s control of Congress in midterm elections in November.

Trump has repeatedly asserted that the US has “total control” over ​the strait, prompting Iranian denials.

Tehran has said it will not allow the waterway to reopen until its conditions are met.

These include removing economic sanctions and releasing frozen Iranian assets.

Shipping ​traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to eight vessels on Tuesday, compared with a 10-day average of about 12 vessels, and 130 to 140 ships before the war.