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“This strait will be opened and closed only under Iran’s command, and so long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a post on X early Saturday (August 15, 2026), showing little urgency toward restoring prewar trade.

“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier, by issuing an order or by delivering an election speech,” he said. One out of every five barrels of the world’s oil exports passed through the strait before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on February 28.

Also read | No progress on reviving peace deal with U.S.: Iran

Mr. Trump on Friday (August 14) urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices while the conflict with Iran continues. At a political rally in Garden City, New York, Mr. Trump said paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” is worth the cost of ensuring “a very evil country” could not have a nuclear weapon, one of the president’s stated rationales for the war.

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