US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday in an interview with Fox News that the United States will retake control of the Strait of Hormuz to restore freedom of navigation, arguing that while some countries have negotiated temporary arrangements with Iran to move ships through the waterway, Washington intends to reassert authority either with U.S. escorts or a multinational escort force. “The market is well supplied and we are seeing more and more ships go through on a daily basis as individual countries cut deals with the Iranian regime for the time being. Over time, the US is going to retake control of the straits and there will be freedom of navigation, whether it is through US escorts or a multinational escort,” he told Fox News.
Bessent’s comments come amid heightened global concern over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint that handles nearly one-fifth of world oil flows. The remarks followed statements on the same day from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told ABC News that the United States has inflicted significant damage on Iran’s navy and defence industrial base and would not allow Tehran to control the strait “in perpetuity.” Rubio said U.S. forces are degrading Iran’s missile launchers and production capabilities and described the current Iran as “at its weakest point.”
Rubio added that President Donald Trump has a range of options to prevent Iranian dominance of the strait, and that military authorities — which he described as “the Department of War” — would lead such actions if necessary. “There is a way forward here to achieve our objectives. We are going to achieve our objectives in a matter of weeks, not months,” he said.
Iranian officials responded angrily. According to Press TV, Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghaei told a press conference that U.S. calls for negotiations raise sensitivities and that global trust in U.S. diplomatic claims is limited. He criticised Washington’s shifting stance and noted that Iran did not take part in a four-sided meeting in Islamabad hosted by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt.
The statements also followed reporting that President Trump had said indirect negotiations with Iran, facilitated by Pakistani intermediaries, were making “positive progress.” At the same time, Trump posted on social media that if a deal is not reached and the Strait of Hormuz is not “immediately ‘Open for Business,'” the U.S. could target Iranian civilian energy infrastructure, including power plants, oil wells and Kharg Island. The president said Washington was holding “serious discussions” with what he called a “new and more reasonable” Tehran leadership to end U.S. military operations.
The exchanges occur as the conflict involving the U.S., Israel and Iran enters a second month and security tensions across West Asia and the Gulf remain elevated. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-going-to-retake-control-of-straits-of-hormuz-us-treasury-chief-scott-bessent-11288588#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-03-31 02:30:00
