US Central Command has publicly rejected a claim by the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy that American forces have abandoned the Strait of Hormuz, saying its forces remain in the waterway. In a fact-check post on X on Tuesday 27 October, CENTCOM labelled the claim false, saying US forces deployed to the Middle East remain present and vigilant in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, as demonstrated by the CENTCOM commander this weekend, and that US forces and regional partners control the international waterway, clearly not Iran.

The claim, and the rebuttal

The Iranian claim was made on 23 October and carried by Iran's Mehr News Agency. The IRGC Navy commander said the Americans were no longer present in the Persian Gulf, had moved 600 to 700 kilometres away from the Strait of Hormuz, and that their vessels were no longer seen in the area, adding that the United States no longer had a place in the strait. CENTCOM's rebuttal pointed to its commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, flying over the waterway on Sunday 25 October in a US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter, meeting service members who took part in clearing shipping lanes of sea mines the command says were laid by the IRGC.

What CENTCOM cites for its presence

CENTCOM also cited its own figures for the waterway's traffic: US forces have helped Gulf partners export more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil through the strait since the summer, more than 3,000 commercial vessels have transited with American support over the past six months, and over 95% of ships have passed through safely. Those figures are CENTCOM's own and have not been independently verified. On Wednesday, CENTCOM spokesperson US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins said traffic through the strait continues to flow, rejecting the suggestion that Iran controls the waterway. About a fifth of the world's oil normally passes through the strait, which is why competing claims about who controls it move markets as well as navies.

Sources: MEAWW (CENTCOM statement) and Zark News.