Iran is vowing to bar U.S. Navy warships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz as part of an agreement to reopen the waterway, pressing its goal of curtailing America’s decades-old military presence in the Persian Gulf.
Tehran’s threat highlights the ascendance within the Iranian leadership of hard-liners in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who have long sought the ouster of American forces from the region. Though Iran has taken a devastating military beating, its leaders now see an opportunity to use negotiations on ending the six-month war to dislodge the U.S. as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf.
Iranian officials have publicly made the threat amid negotiations with Oman, the sultanate on the strait’s southern coast leading discussions with Tehran. U.S. officials have told mediators they won’t accept Iranian restrictions or tolls on Hormuz traffic, one of several sharp conflicts between Washington and Tehran that have delayed completing an agreement.
As a military matter, Iran is unlikely to be able to deny the U.S. Navy access to the Gulf if it decides to sail through the strait, analysts and former senior military commanders say. The Pentagon sent two Navy guided-missile destroyers through Hormuz in April at the height of the war.
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