Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. Navy can sustain its blockade of Iranian ports for an unlimited period by rotating ships through the region as Washington continues military and economic pressure on Tehran.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The United States has enough naval capacity to maintain its blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday, signaling that the Pentagon believes it can continue restricting Iranian shipping without placing a fixed time limit on the operation.
Hegseth said the Navy can sustain the blockade by rotating vessels into and out of the Middle East as deployments require.
“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.
His comments indicate that the military has advised President Donald Trump that the blockade can remain in place for as long as the administration considers it necessary while Washington seeks to increase pressure on Iran and revive negotiations aimed at ending the conflict.
Those negotiations have so far failed to produce an agreement.
The war began Feb. 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran, and the United States has since significantly expanded its military presence across the Middle East.
Hegseth made his remarks in Panama after addressing sailors aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile destroyer that had previously deployed to the Middle East.
The defense secretary’s comments came one day after Trump declared that the United States had established control over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategically important waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with international shipping routes.
“The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.
The Strait of Hormuz has been a central focus of the conflict because of its importance to global energy markets.
Before the war, approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments moved through the strait.
Following the Feb. 28 attacks, Tehran effectively shut the waterway.
The United States subsequently established a naval blockade targeting Iranian shipping and Iranian ports while maintaining that commercial vessels traveling to and from non-Iranian ports would continue to receive protection for freedom of navigation.
Washington has committed tens of thousands of American troops to the Middle East since hostilities began.
More than 20 U.S. warships have also been deployed to the region as part of the military buildup.
The naval operation has increasingly involved direct enforcement against commercial vessels accused of attempting to bypass the blockade.
Since the blockade began, U.S. forces have redirected more than 55 commercial vessels attempting to run it, according to the information provided.
American forces have disabled three vessels and boarded two others during enforcement operations.
One of the most recent confrontations occurred earlier this week when a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of a Panama-flagged vessel after the ship ignored warnings from U.S. forces, according to the military.
The episode demonstrated the level of force Washington is prepared to use to enforce restrictions on maritime traffic connected to Iran.
Hegseth’s statement Thursday also addresses questions about whether the Navy can sustain such an operation over a prolonged period.
Rather than keeping the same ships deployed indefinitely, the Pentagon intends to maintain the blockade by cycling vessels and crews through the theater.
That strategy would allow the United States to preserve its maritime pressure on Iran while eventually replacing ships that have spent extended periods in the region.
The blockade is intended to place additional economic pressure on Tehran while the Trump administration continues seeking a negotiated end to the war.
With diplomacy so far producing no agreement, Hegseth said the military does not face an immediate operational deadline that would force Washington to abandon the blockade.
Trump, meanwhile, has publicly presented American control of the Strait of Hormuz as a major strategic advantage and indicated Wednesday that the United States may seek to retain that position.
Together, the statements from Trump and Hegseth suggest that Washington is preparing for the possibility of a prolonged maritime campaign.
As long as negotiations remain unresolved, the administration appears prepared to continue using U.S. naval power to restrict Iranian ports and shipping while keeping non-Iranian commercial traffic moving through the region.
Hegseth’s declaration that the blockade can continue “indefinitely” makes clear that, from the Pentagon’s perspective, maintaining the operation is primarily a matter of rotating sufficient ships and personnel rather than reaching the limits of U.S. naval capacity.
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