Iran Can’t Fully Reopen Strait Because It Forgot Where It Placed Mines, U.S. Officials Claim

Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via AP

Iran has not reopened the Strait of Hormuz to more ships because it forgot where it allegedly placed some of the mines it laid in the vital waterway, U.S. officials told The New York Times.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a two-week ceasefire in the war Trump launched on Feb. 28. As part of the deal, the president said Iran had agreed to reopen the strait. However, the passageway remains mostly restricted after Iran said the ceasefire included a pause on Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, which is still ongoing. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who mediated talks between the U.S. and Iran, also said that a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon was part of the arrangement. Additionally, Trump was told Lebanon was included in the agreement, according to CBS News, which reported that the president subsequently reversed himself after a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, U.S. officials told the Times that unaccounted-for mines are the reason the strait remains mostly closed.

“Those routes are limited in large part because Iran mined the strait haphazardly, U.S. officials said,” the Times stated. “It is not clear that Iran recorded where it put every mine. And even when the location was recorded, some mines were placed in a way that allowed them to drift or move, according to the officials.”

Last month, the Times cited anonymous U.S. officials to report that Iran had mined the strait, but Trump himself equivocated on the issue, stating in March, “If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!”

About 20% of the world’s oil flows through the strait.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president told aides before the war that Iran would not close the strait if attacked.

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