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President Donald Trump released a map on Tuesday morning identifying the long-contested Strait of Hormuz as a new U.S. territory. Trump offered no commentary with the map, but clarified several hours later that the U.S. naval blockade against Iran remained in full effect. There were no ongoing or scheduled talks with Iran, according to Trump’s separate Tuesday statement. U.S. Special Envoy Jared Kushner previously told Fox News on Monday that communication continued between the United States and Iran. The deal will be ready when it’s ready, and Trump aimed to hold out for the right deal, he said.
Trump characterized the strait as open and operational, adding that all water mines placed by Iran were removed or detonated. But attacks on commercial ships traveling the critical waterway appeared to continue despite American assurances. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center reported a bulk carrier being hit by an unidentified projectile while exiting the strait on Tuesday. The impact damaged one side of the vessel and killed one crewmember, according to the UKMTO. The United Arab Emirates air defense systems also flagged two ballistic missiles fired toward the country from Iran on Tuesday. One missile landed in international waters, and the other landed in UAE waters, according to the UAE’s defense ministry.
The research policy group, the Institute for the Study of War, released a Monday report hypothesizing that Iran planned to expand the scope of its attacks. Iran signaled more severe attacks would occur should the regime’s extreme demands, like removing the naval blockade and other sanctions, not be met, according to the think tank.
Has Iran said anything? Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf slammed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a Tuesday statement. Americans think that squeezing Iran harder will yield new concessions that were never part of the deal, he wrote. Bessent and Hegseth are out of their depth and need to clean up the mess they made, Ghalibaf added. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also released a Tuesday statement characterizing Trump as deluded in response to Trump citing the strait as a new U.S. territory. Trump’s delusions about the strait will either be corrected, or else Iran will correct them, Gharibabadi wrote.