Overview
- On Friday President Donald Trump said he will "very soon" declare the Strait of Hormuz U.S. territory and repeated that Washington currently controls passage through the waterway.
- The U.S. confirmed the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the region to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln and the defense secretary said the Navy can sustain the blockade indefinitely.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington will announce unprecedented new economic measures next week aimed at isolating Iranian funds, crypto holdings and secondary buyers of Iranian oil.
- Iranian officials and the Authority of the Strait of the Persian Gulf rejected U.S. claims, said the route remains under Tehran's control, and insisted the strait will stay closed until the United States meets Iran's conditions for reopening.
- Commercial transit through the passage has collapsed from roughly 130–140 ships per day before the war to about 10–12 per day, a drop that is raising supply risks for global energy markets and complicating stalled talks from the June provisional agreement that approach their deadline.