U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the cease-fire with Iran remains in place, even as U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged fire in the Gulf while vying for control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth said the U.S. had successfully secured a path through the critical waterway and that hundreds of commercial ships were lining up to pass through, as Washington seeks to break a chokehold Iran has asserted on the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict began on Feb. 28.
"We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact. They said they control the Strait. They do not," Hegseth told a Pentagon news conference.
The U.S. military says it sank six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones, after President Donald Trump sent the navy to escort stranded tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in a campaign he called "Project Freedom."
Several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires on Monday, and an oil port in the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a large U.S. military base, was set ablaze by Iranian missiles.
