Iran denies US claim on Hormuz oil transport

Iran’s armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi rejected US CENTCOM’s claim that American forces supported over 1 billion barrels of oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz. He called the statement false, while CENTCOM said its blockade halted Iranian oil exports

Tehran: Senior spokesman for Iran’s armed forces Abolfazl Shekarchi rejected a claim by US Central Command (CENTCOM) that US forces had supported the transport of over 1 billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz “in the last couple of months.”

In a statement carried by Iranian media, Shekarchi described the claim, made earlier in the day by CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper, as “false and ridiculous.”

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He added that Cooper’s remarks constituted a “projection and a failed psychological operation to boost the morale of the terrorist US Army’s exhausted and worn-out forces in the region and justify the exorbitant financial costs and casualties incurred by the United States in the region,” Xinhua news agency reported.

Shekarchi noted that such claims could not change the reality of the expulsion of the “aggressive” US Army from the region, stressing that the initiative in the Strait of Hormuz remained in the hands of Iran’s armed forces.

In a video posted on social media on Saturday, Cooper said, “We’ve reached this significant milestone while assisting over 2,000 commercial ship transits through the strait by providing coordinated protection. Clearly, the momentum is building.” “CENTCOM forces have supported more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil leaving the Gulf,” Adm. Brad Cooper said in remarks released by the command on US social media platform X.

“Thousands of ships have passed through the strait. Over 1 billion barrels of crude have been shipped from Gulf partners through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran has exported zero barrels thanks to our ironclad blockade,” he added.

At the same time, Cooper said Iran had exported “zero barrels” of oil, attributing the halt to what he called the US “ironclad blockade.”

Following US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Tehran restricted passage through the strategic waterway, while US forces imposed a naval blockade targeting vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports.