CENTCOM Commander Claims Full Minesweeping of the Strait of Hormuz; Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Rejects the Claim

According to ISNA, carried by Ecoiran on Friday, 6 Shahrivar 1405 (August 28, 2026), CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper claimed the United States has fully cleared mines from the Strait of Hormuz. He said about 50,000 US personnel are enforcing a naval blockade against Iran and maintaining maritime traffic through the strait, and that with US assistance vessels have moved a total of about 750 million barrels of oil out of the Persian Gulf in recent months.

Responding to the claims, Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy foreign minister of Iran for legal and international affairs, had earlier said on a television program, while stressing that the Iran-Oman understanding does not mean reopening the Strait of Hormuz, that no one but Iran knows the location of the mines in the strait and that such claims are nothing more than assertions.