# New Iran Security Chief Threatens to Keep Hormuz Partly Shut Until U.S. Concedes

*Tuesday, August 11, 2026 at 6:08 PM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-08-11T18:08:01.990Z (3h ago)
**Category**: geopolitics | **Region**: Middle East
**Importance**: 9/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/14006.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: Iran’s new national security chief Mohsen Rezaee says the Strait of Hormuz “will not be opened” unless Washington ends the war, unfreezes Iranian funds and lifts sanctions. The threat comes as U.S. officials report oil flows through the strait are only slowly recovering and as footage shows American Apaches flying low near Iranian waters. Readers will see how a single shipping lane is again turning into leverage over global energy and U.S. strategy.

Iran’s new security leadership is tying the world’s most sensitive oil chokepoint directly to a political ultimatum for Washington, raising the stakes of an already fragile standoff in the Gulf.

Mohsen Rezaee, recently appointed chairman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful officials, declared that the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened as long as the United States refuses to change course. In public comments on 11 August, he said Washington must end the war, transfer frozen Iranian funds and lift sanctions if it wants normal traffic through the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Gulf.

Rezaee’s statement is the clearest linkage in months between Iran’s demands and its leverage over maritime traffic, even as U.S. officials signal that some disruption is already easing. The U.S. energy secretary said on Sunday that oil flows through Hormuz have recovered to around 9 million barrels per day, easing immediate supply concerns after earlier interruptions. That figure is still below the maximum sustained levels seen in recent years, suggesting operators remain cautious.

The rhetoric is playing out against a backdrop of visible military activity. Video circulating on 11 August, reportedly filmed by Iranian fishermen near the Gulf of Oman and Qeshm Island, shows a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter flying at low altitude close to Iran’s coastline. While such flights are part of routine American patrol patterns in the region, their documentation by local civilians reinforces how closely Iran’s population — and its security services — are watching the skies and seas around Hormuz.

For tanker crews and shipping companies, the consequence is a familiar but unwelcome return of risk premia and contingency planning. Vessels transiting Hormuz have already faced higher insurance costs, demands for additional security measures, and more complex route planning as Gulf tensions have ebbed and flowed since 2019. Even the perception that Iran might selectively slow or harass traffic is enough for some operators to rethink schedules or diversify load ports where possible.

For Tehran’s leadership, tying Hormuz to sanctions relief is a way of turning geography into negotiating capital. The strait handles a significant share of global seaborne crude and LNG shipments; even partial disruption can ripple through prices and state budgets far from the Gulf. For Washington and its partners, the challenge is to sustain pressure on Iran over its regional activities and support for armed groups without allowing the energy market to become a hostage to every spike in rhetoric.

The broader pattern is one of incremental tests rather than outright confrontation. U.S. estimates of improving oil flows suggest that, so far, any Iranian measures have stopped short of a full blockade. Yet Rezaee’s warning indicates that Iran is willing to keep the threat alive and to frame any lingering disruption as a deliberate policy choice, not an accident of conflict elsewhere.

Hormuz risk does not require mines in the water or missiles in the air to matter; uncertainty alone can change the cost of every barrel that passes through the strait.

The next indicators to watch will be whether Iran backs its rhetoric with specific rules-of-engagement shifts in its navy or Revolutionary Guard units, whether Western navies adjust escort patterns, and how quickly global benchmarks such as Brent respond if tankers begin reporting closer encounters or delays near the chokepoint.