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The US military is expanding its naval blockade of Iranian ports, with a second aircraft carrier set to join operations within days, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday.
The Pentagon chief said every ship believed to meet US criteria, including Iranian vessels or those travelling to and from Iranian ports, has been turned back, 34 of them to date.
The blockade would remain in place “as long as it takes”, he said, as he repeated US President Donald Trump’s promise a day earlier to shoot to destroy any Iranian military vessels laying mines.
On Thursday, the US Central Command said the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush had arrived in the region.
Mr Hegseth said Iranian forces had been laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, but declined to give an estimate.
He warned that any further mining activity would constitute a breach of the ceasefire. Some shipping lanes through the strait remain open, Mr Hegseth said, but transit has been “much more limited than anybody would like to see, and with more risk than people would like to see … because Iran is doing irresponsible things with small, fast boats”.
The Pentagon's top military officer, Gen Dan Caine, meanwhile announced that US forces had boarded the sanctioned crude carrier M/T Tifani in the Indian Ocean on April 21, detained its crew and seized the vessel, which was transporting Iranian oil.
Gen Caine said the US would continue similar maritime interdiction operations in the Pacific and Indian oceans aimed at Iranian ships and “dark fleet” vessels.
Mr Hegseth, a frequent critic of EU allies, also called on European nations to contribute to patrols of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the era of “free riding” under the US security umbrella is over.
“We are not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do, and might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat,” he said.
