WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the ceasefire with Iran remains in place, even as the United States and Iran exchanged fire in the Gulf amid escalating tensions over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth stated that the US had successfully secured safe passage through the critical waterway, adding that hundreds of commercial vessels were now lining up to transit as Washington attempts to break what it says is Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began on February 28.
“We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact. They said they control the strait. They do not,” Hegseth said during a Pentagon press conference.
The US military claimed it had sunk six Iranian small boats and intercepted cruise missiles and drones, following President Donald Trump’s order to deploy the navy to escort stranded tankers through the strait under an operation dubbed “Project Freedom.”
Several merchant vessels in the Gulf reportedly experienced explosions or fires on Monday, while an oil port in the United Arab Emirates—home to a major US military base—was struck by Iranian missiles and caught fire.
General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that since the ceasefire announcement on April 7, Iran had fired on commercial ships nine times and seized two container vessels.
He further said Iran had carried out more than 10 attacks against US forces, but added that these incidents remained “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point.”
When asked whether the ceasefire still stood, Hegseth replied: “The ceasefire is not over.”
“We said we would defend and defend aggressively, and we absolutely have. Iran knows that, and ultimately, the president can make a decision whether anything were to escalate into a violation of a ceasefire,” he added.
The operation is part of Trump’s broader effort to restore stability to global energy supplies disrupted by Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas previously passed before the conflict.
The US Navy is also enforcing a maritime blockade on Iran, restricting ships from entering or leaving Iranian territory.