Trump presses Iran to declare Strait of Hormuz open to shipping

Donald Trump threatened Iran on Saturday after mourners at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral chanted for his death, while U.S. officials pushed Tehran to publicly declare the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping.

A July 10 U.S. demand called on Iran to affirm that the Strait of Hormuz is fully open to shipping traffic and that Iranian forces are not firing on vessels. Trump expected Tehran to make the statement publicly, and a senior U.S. official warned there would not be a “good outcome” if it refused. The narrow waterway carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply each day in peacetime, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Trump’s post on Truth Social came after the funeral for Khamenei, who was 86 and was killed in an airstrike in the opening moments of the war on Feb. 28, 2026. During the dayslong burial ceremony, mourners repeatedly held posters and banners calling for Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be killed. Trump wrote that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat,” and declared that the U.S. military would “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran.”

Retaliatory strikes hit roughly 90 targets inside Iran this week, including air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline. Iran has also fired drones and missiles toward U.S. allies in the Middle East, including three Gulf countries where some U.S. military assets and troops are located.

Only 15 ships transited the Strait of Hormuz in the prior 24 hours, far below normal traffic. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was scheduled to travel to Oman for consultations, even as Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei made clear Iran had accepted responsibility for normal arrangements and maritime services related to vessel traffic in the strait. Tehran had not issued the public statement Washington wanted, and instead insisted the route remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships passing through it.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations criticized Trump’s “deranged mocking of Islam.”