‘Trump will have to take this dream to his grave’: Iran’s armed forces chief of staff vows to bar US military ships from Persian Gulf
Photo: Collected
US President Donald Trump will have to go to his grave with the dream of sending his country’s military ships into the Persian Gulf, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi said on Saturday. Tehran declared that US military ships would not be allowed to enter the Persian Gulf under any circumstances.
The remarks came amid mounting threats from the United States and Israel of fresh attacks on Iran. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack warned that the possibility of the United States attacking Iran this weekend ‘cannot be ruled out at all’.
News agency AFP reported from Tehran that Abdollahi said in remarks broadcast on Iranian state television, ‘Under no circumstances and at no time will we allow US military ships to enter the Persian Gulf.’
In his words, ‘The US president will have to see the scene of his country’s armed forces entering the Persian Gulf only in his dreams. He will have to go to his grave with that dream.’
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital route for energy shipments and the main gateway to the Persian Gulf. Since war with the United States broke out on 28 February, Iranian forces have restricted shipping through this strategically important strait.
In response, the United States has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and ships.
Ships are being forced to obtain Tehran’s permission to pass through the strait. Ships trying to cross Hormuz via the southern route along the coast of Oman have repeatedly been targeted.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have claimed that several tankers trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz via a route Tehran considers ‘illegal’ have been damaged by mines in recent days.
The Guards said on Friday that two supertankers carrying more than 4.5 million barrels of crude oil were lying abandoned at sea after being hit by mines in the strategic waterway.
A statement published on the Guards’ Sepah News website said, ‘The engine rooms of the two ships have been disabled by explosions and a massive fire.’
In peacetime, before the war began, about one-fifth of the world’s total oil and gas was transported through the Strait of Hormuz.
By the numbers
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), an average of about 20 million barrels of oil a day passed through the Strait of Hormuz in 2024, equivalent to about 20 per cent of global petroleum liquids consumption; about one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade also goes through this route, the EIA said on 16 June 2025.
Sources
Background source: US Energy Information Administration (EIA), 16 June 2025
