Published On 4/26/2026
Iran still maintains its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, considering it one of its most powerful strategic tools in its confrontation with America and Israel, according to the American website The Hill, which believes that breaking this hegemony seems much more difficult than Washington expected.
The site obtained the opinions of analysts who downplayed the impact of the strategy of US President Donald Trump, who decided to maintain the naval blockade on shipping traffic from Iranian ports. According to those analysts, this strategy may serve Iran more than it weakens it.
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Alem Saleh, a lecturer in Iranian studies at the Australian National University, says that the American blockade is not necessarily practical and will never force Iran to retreat or surrender.
Saleh explains in an interview with The Hill that if Iran prevents the transfer of others’ oil through the Strait of Hormuz, while the United States prevents Iran’s oil through the same gate, the result will be that “the Strait is completely closed thanks to the United States and Iran together.”
Iranian strategy
According to the spokesman, this is exactly what Tehran wants, that is, “to keep oil prices high, influence the global economy, and make the continuation of the war very costly for the United States.” He even says that what Trump is doing “helps the Iranian strategy to be achieved in a shorter time.”
Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz shortly after the start of the joint US-Israeli attacks more than 50 days ago. Although American war games anticipated this scenario for years, the speed and effectiveness of Iranian implementation surprised Washington.
Jim Crane, an energy expert at the Baker Institute at Rice University, says Iran has now proven that it can “hold the global economy hostage” if it is attacked, which gives it a “very strong deterrent capability” against any future strikes.
The repercussions of this impasse have appeared globally, as America faces a rise in fuel prices, while other countries suffer from more severe crises, to the point that some have declared a national emergency, and farmers around the world face an increasing shortage of fertilizer.
Meanwhile, Iranian oil exports have not stopped completely. Saleh points out that halting oil shipments to China, which imports about 90% of Iranian crude, is a much more complex issue.
Geography factor
Despite the great military damage to Iran as a result of the American and Israeli strikes, geography still works in its favor, according to the site.
Saleh asserts that the most powerful army in the world “cannot control more than 3,000 kilometers of sea,” nor fully control the complex shipping lines and coasts of the Strait.
For his part, former professor at the US Naval Academy Mark Nevitt confirms that as long as Iran is able to launch drones from anywhere inside the country, it will remain able to threaten ships and thus control the strait.
Sahar Razavi, director of the Center for Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies at Sacramento University, agrees with him, stressing that “America cannot practically do anything to completely remove Iranian influence on the Strait as long as the Iranian regime exists.”
Mines and alliances
Also of major concern are Iranian naval mines. The report quoted a US defense official as saying that removing existing mines may take 6 months, and cannot begin before the end of military operations.
Iran is also exploiting the crisis to reshape international alliances. The idea of imposing transit fees on ships passing through the strait was proposed, and perhaps requiring some countries to pay in Chinese yuan or digital currencies, which would reduce dependence on the US dollar and weaken the effectiveness of sanctions.
John Calabrese, a researcher at the Middle East Institute, believes that allowing ships of friendly countries to pass easily in exchange for restricting others may gradually lead to “dismantling the anti-Iran coalition.”
The website reported that several countries, including Britain and France, were disturbed by Trump’s decision to launch war without prior coordination. Radavi says that Iran is trying to exploit this division, especially since the United States itself was the reason for it.
A strong negotiating card
However, analysts caution against overestimating Iranian power; According to Calabrese, Iran has not achieved permanent or absolute control over the Strait of Hormuz, but it has proven its ability to restrict navigation in it, meaning that it has gained a “strong negotiating card,” but it has not yet reached the ability to reshape the regional order on its own.
In the long term, experts believe that the only real solution is to build alternative export routes, via pipelines and railways that bypass the Strait of Hormuz, but implementing these projects will take years. Until then, the Strait will remain Iran’s most effective strategic weapon.
Alam Saleh concludes by saying that military escalation alone will not solve the crisis, and that the only way to solve this problem is to reach a settlement, calling on both sides to take this seriously.
