US MILITARY TELLS CONGRESS CLEARING IRANIAN MINES IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ COULD TAKE SIX MONTHS
The United States military has informed Congress that it could take as long as six months to clear Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s seaborne oil.
According to the briefing first reported in April, any full clearance operation was unlikely to begin until active hostilities with Iran concluded, leaving the risk of elevated oil and gasoline prices hanging over markets for months. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps laid the mines during the conflict, deliberately targeting a vital chokepoint that supplies energy to the United States and its allies.
American forces later moved in and did the hard work. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper stated that U.S. Navy divers, SEALs, and air power from multiple services “successfully cleared sea mines in the Strait’s international shipping lanes.”
By late October, the command confirmed that all internationally recognized primary transit routes “have been cleared of sea mines by US forces and remain so,” with thousands of commercial vessels safely transiting and more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil moved since summer.
Iran continues to push claims of ongoing mine strikes through its controlled media. CENTCOM has rejected those reports as false. The original six-month assessment shows the scale of the threat Tehran created and the resources required to undo it. It also shows why candid military briefings to Congress matter more than optimistic talking points.