During a speech on Long Island, N.Y., on Friday, President Trump announced that he intends to declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory. The statement was made during an address focused on his administration's efforts to combat domestic crime. Trump stated, "Pretty soon, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States."
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway situated between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with Iran on its northern coast and Oman on its southern coast. These two nations currently share jurisdiction over the waterway. Trump did not provide specific details on how the U.S. would establish legal jurisdiction or territory status over waters currently governed by other sovereign nations.
For the past six months, the United States has been in a conflict with Iran, during which time the strait has been closed. President Trump has previously claimed U.S. control over the area, deploying naval blockades on two occasions to oversee oil export transits. Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority responded on Wednesday via the social platform X, stating that ownership claims do not change the fact that the waterway remains blocked until Iran's conditions are met.
A change in the legal status of the strait would primarily impact the governments and citizens of Oman and Iran, who currently hold jurisdiction, as well as the international maritime industry. If the U.S. were to successfully claim the area as territory, it would set a new precedent regarding the sovereignty of international transit corridors. However, because the U.S. currently lacks jurisdiction, the concrete day-to-day changes for commercial vessels and the exact timeline for such a declaration remain unclear.
The knock-on effects of this announcement involve potential escalations in the six-month-old U.S.-Iran war and further volatility in global energy markets. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority has explicitly stated that the waterway will not reopen until their specific conditions are accepted, regardless of U.S. territorial claims. What happens next depends on official administration filings or further executive actions, though no specific dates for a formal declaration were provided in the president's remarks.