A report from Axios shows how the US military has successfully implemented the plan of President Donald Trump and has taken control of the Strait of Hormuz, reopening key maritime routes for commercial ships to navigate without the danger of explosive mines and Iranian projectiles.
Weeks of US airstrikes, mine removal operations, and military escorts through the strait have managed to militarily reduce Iran's response capability. "That bastard is open. The Iranian response is very mild. They don't want us to go against them," Trump told Axios on the matter. "That's the whole game. The rest doesn't matter," the president added.
The closure of the strait, effectively declared during the early days of the war in late February, became the main weapon of the Iranian regime, as it paralyzed much of commercial maritime transport and drove global energy prices up. Through missile and drone attacks on vessels, the regime kept traffic in the waterway well below pre-conflict levels.
The passage had been temporarily reopened after Trump agreed to a ceasefire with Tehran, but the Persian regime violated the pact. In response, Washington began to act alongside the United Arab Emirates and other regional allies to forcibly reopen the maritime route without Iran's cooperation.
Trump broke the Iranian blockade in the Strait of Hormuz and assured that the routes are now mine-free
In parallel, the US Navy cleared routes of explosive mines and reinstated the blockade on Iranian ports to suffocate the regime's economy and paralyze its oil sales to the world. In total, more than 200 suspicious objects have been removed from the strait, of which only a small percentage were properly deployed mines.
According to Axios, in the last month, only 2% of the 20 to 30 ships that passed through Hormuz each night were hit by Iranian fire. In this regard, CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper stated on Thursday that his forces reached "a significant milestone in the Strait of Hormuz," confirming that the main routes are now free of Iranian mines.
The White House hopes to increase traffic to at least 50 ships per night by mid-September and restore oil exports to between 60% and 70% of pre-war levels. In this context, it is understood why, as Trump asserts, Tehran is begging for a deal.
The tankers navigate through the strait with U.S. protection
