{"id":2000105385,"date":"2026-03-14T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/?p=2000105385"},"modified":"2026-03-14T10:09:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T08:09:25","slug":"u-s-wont-allow-shipping-in-strait-of-hormuz-to-be-contested-hegseth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/u-s-wont-allow-shipping-in-strait-of-hormuz-to-be-contested-hegseth\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. won’t allow shipping in Strait of Hormuz “to be contested”: Hegseth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is no clear evidence that Iran has placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz, he said at a news briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the United States is planning for Iran’s various measures and “that’s not a strait we’re gonna allow to remain contested.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that connects the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, is one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, carrying around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade and significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth also told reporters that strikes carried out by the United States and Israel have significantly weakened Iran’s military capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Between our Air Force and that of the Israelis, over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran’s missile volume is down 90 percent and that of their one-way attack drones was down 95 percent as of Thursday, Hegseth further said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth threatened that “today will be yet again, the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran and Tehran.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth also told reporters that the U.S. Central Command has designated an investigating officer to complete a command investigation into a strike on an elementary school in Iran that killed over 160 people, mostly pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Feb. 28 strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab occurred during U.S. operations targeting a nearby Iranian military base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to reports, a preliminary finding from an ongoing military investigation indicates that the school was struck by a U.S. Tomahawk missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A fire breaks out on a Thai cargo ship after it was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on March 11, 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States will not allow shipping in the Strait of Hormuz “to be contested” by Iran, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000105386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[235],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000105385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-xinhua"],"bylines":[{"id":235,"name":"Xinhua","slug":"xinhua","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":80}],"contributors":[{"id":235,"name":"Xinhua","slug":"xinhua","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":80}],"featured_image":{"id":2000105386,"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BV.jpg","alt":"","caption":"A fire breaks out on a Thai cargo ship after it was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on March 11, 2026.","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":767,"height":431,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BV.jpg","width":150,"height":84},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BV.jpg","width":300,"height":169},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BV.jpg","width":767,"height":431},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BV.jpg","width":767,"height":431},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BV.jpg","width":767,"height":431}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000105385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000105385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000105385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000105390,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000105385\/revisions\/2000105390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000105386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000105385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000105385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000105385"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000105385"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000105385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}