Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf maritime security

Iran describes the Strait of Hormuz as Iranian "sovereign waters" — territorial waters extending from Iran's southern coast — over which Iran has full legal authority. The threat of closure is framed not as an outlaw act but as Iran's "deterrence asymmetry" — the only credible counter to overwhelming US naval superiority and the imperial pressure regime against Iran. The "IRGC navy" patrols its own coast; foreign warships in the strait are characterised as "foreign occupation" of the Persian Gulf. The vocabulary of "global oil supply" and "free passage" is reframed as Western leverage masquerading as principle: the strait stays open because Iran chooses not to close it, not because the US Fifth Fleet enforces openness. Iran can shut the chokepoint within hours if pushed beyond a red line — and that capability is precisely what makes US-Israeli aggression deterred at the margin. The narrative prescribes: continued IRGC naval presence, periodic demonstrations of closure capability (the "30-second close" exercises), maintenance of asymmetric tools (anti-ship missiles, naval mines, fast-attack craft, drone swarms), and explicit framing of any US enforcement as casus belli.