Iran's Major General Rezaei says that the Strait of Hormuz is not open and is under Iran's control

Declarations of Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz recur across past episodes of Gulf tension and have historically served as coercive signalling rather than a literal interdiction; full closure has never been sustained, since roughly a fifth of global crude transits the chokepoint and Tehran itself depends on the waterway for its own exports, which caps the incentive to close it. The distinction that matters for crude pricing is between rhetorical assertion, harassment of individual tankers, and an actual mining or blockade attempt: the first has typically added a modest, fading risk premium to the front of the WTI and Brent curves, while the second tier has produced sharper but still reversible moves, and only sustained disruption to physical flows has altered the term structure durably. The reference to smuggling along the southern coast reads as an admission that enforcement is partial, which cuts against the claim of full control. The channels to monitor are freight and war-risk insurance rates on Gulf loadings, tanker traffic data through the strait, and any response from the naval coalition presence in the area, all of which have been the reliable tells in prior episodes of this kind. Rezaei is a senior military figure rather than the civilian leadership, and in past cycles the operative question has been whether such remarks are echoed by the Supreme Leader's office or the foreign ministry, since that has determined whether rhetoric escalates into action.