Washington put forward the assertion on Friday that Tehran was facing mounting economic strain and had lost the capacity to sustain its allied armed groups, a situation attributed to a naval blockade that the United States had put in place. Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, told reporters that Tehran's maritime trade had been cut off entirely as a result of American restrictions, leaving the country without sea-based exports or imports.
Cooper stated that the combined effect of these operations had placed a considerable burden on Iran's security forces and the IRGC in particular, and that Centcom, working alongside US agency partners over recent months, had targeted the country's military establishment across three distinct areas. According to a Centcom statement, oil export disruptions tied to the blockade resulted in an estimated $25 billion revenue shortfall for Iran. Reports indicate that $350 million in cryptocurrency held by Iran was placed under a freeze by US authorities, though the assertion has yet to be independently verified.
The Axis of Resistance — a coalition of governments and armed factions across the Middle East that share opposition to Israeli and US military presence in the region — counts among its membership groups linked to Iran. Among the network's core constituents are Iran, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthi movement, and groups operating across the Palestinian territories — namely Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — alongside additional affiliated actors.
The Centcom commander's assessment, presented without independent verification, pointed to supply constraints spanning numerous sectors of Iran's economy — among them energy, oil, steel, heavy industry, manufacturing, automotive, aviation, construction, and defence. Pointing to vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, he told the audience that roughly 400 ships had passed through the waterway over a seven-day span.
Cooper stated that the US had additionally supported Gulf partners in moving more than 100 million barrels of crude oil across that same timeframe, a contribution that brought the total volume of oil facilitated for allied nations to upward of 1.3 billion barrels over recent months.
Rival assertions over who held authority across the contested waterway formed the backdrop against which that statement arrived. The IRGC stated on Friday that a vessel transporting more than two million barrels of crude oil had been hit by a sea mine while navigating the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway the force characterised as operating outside authorised parameters — with the tanker itself described in the statement as operating without legal sanction. According to a dispatch from ISNA, the state news outlet based in Iran, the event set off both a blast and an intense blaze.
A weekly review published by the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) puts the number of recorded episodes in the Strait at 135, set against the backdrop of ongoing tensions between Iran and the United States.
