Two US officials confirmed Trump's announcement and said the US Navy has cleared the Traffic Separation Scheme, the median lane of the strait that is right between Oman and Iran, reports Axios
Announcements of this kind, where a political leader declares a strait reopened or cleared and confirmation then flows through named officials via a single news outlet, follow a familiar sequence in past episodes around this waterway: the headline moves crude and freight first, and the durability of the move depends on whether commercial shipping actually resumes transits rather than on the statement itself. The operational detail here, the Traffic Separation Scheme, the designated median shipping lane between Omani and Iranian waters, is the relevant mechanism: clearance of the TSS is what underwriters, charterers and shipowners price, since war-risk premiums, insurance rates and tanker availability respond to whether vessels resume passage, not to political declarations. Officials confirming rather than the military formally announcing is itself a tell; in comparable reopenings, the second-stage signals have been notices to mariners, insurer repricing and actual vessel tracking data. The distinction worth drawing is between de-escalation that holds and headline-driven calm that reverses on the next incident, a pattern this strait has produced repeatedly. Follow-ons are freight and insurance quotes, any response from Tehran, and whether naval escort arrangements accompany transits. Until physical flows confirm, the move rests on wording alone.