Iran's President Claims Victory Over U.S. as Strait of Hormuz Standoff Drags On

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media Friday that the war with the United States should be over because, in his telling, the whole world already agrees Iran won. "The entire world approved our victory and the U.S. is hated," Pezeshkian said, according to Iran's IRNA news agency.

Pezeshkian is the president of Iran, on the record, six months into a shooting war that started when the U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury in late February, killing Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of senior regime figures, according to Breitbart.

The problem with Pezeshkian's victory lap: the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil and gas shipments, has been effectively closed since the war began, according to the Associated Press. France and Saudi Arabia are now expected to discuss ways to bypass the Strait entirely, because nobody trusts it's opening anytime soon. For a country whose economy runs on oil exports through that same waterway, a closed strait undermines claims of victory.

President Trump isn't backing off either. He's promised what he calls an "economic D-Day" against Iran, doubling down on sanctions designed to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program and reopen Hormuz for good, according to the AP. Iranian families are already struggling to afford basic goods as that pressure campaign grinds on, the AP reported separately.

The 60-day deal that expired, and the bombing threats that followed

Back in the spring, Trump announced a memorandum of understanding with Iran to wind down Operation Epic Fury. Iran's military command, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, immediately called it a surrender by the United States, while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's civilian government was more cautious, framing it as a win but warning Tehran wouldn't celebrate until Washington held up its end, according to Breitbart.

That memorandum's 60-day window has since expired. Trump told Fox News Iran should "put up the white flag of surrender," according to the Daily Wire. He also warned Oman against interfering with U.S. efforts in the Strait: "we'll bomb the sh*t out of them," he said. Trump described what the U.S. has used against Iran so far as "peanuts," claiming America still holds much heavier firepower in reserve.

Trump separately told reporters in Geneva, Ohio, that the U.S. has "total control" of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Fox News. "We have total control over the Strait right now. They don't have control. We have total control. We own it," he said. Iran's claims of total victory and America's claims of total control cannot both be literally true.

Iran's pivot to Russia and China

While Pezeshkian talks victory, Iran is quietly rebuilding its economic lifelines elsewhere. Central Bank of Iran Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati announced Iran will join the BRICS New Development Bank, a Shanghai-based lender created by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as an alternative to the World Bank, according to Fox News. Russia's Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov has pushed for tighter financial coordination between Moscow and Tehran specifically to blunt Western sanctions.

The picture that emerges: a regime under real economic strain, leaning harder on Moscow and Beijing, publicly declaring victory anyway. Whether that's confidence or propaganda for a domestic audience squeezed by sanctions cannot be determined from available reporting.

A separate mess: the Golan Heights

Completely apart from the Iran standoff, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur Mario Nawfal that Israel "still" occupies the Golan Heights "against the U.N. resolutions," according to the Independent and matching AP wire coverage. That directly contradicts official U.S. policy. Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in a 2019 proclamation, and Colombia recently became the second country, after the U.S., to follow suit.

Conservative activist Laura Loomer, a Trump ally, posted on X that Barrack "should resign for his lack of understanding of U.S. foreign policy." Barrack hasn't walked back the comment as of this writing, and no source indicates the State Department has issued a formal response or correction.

What's unresolved

Trump has said he has "no time schedule" and is "not in a hurry" on Iran, and insists the ongoing naval blockade will keep grinding down Tehran regardless of who's talking tough in public, according to the Daily Wire. Meanwhile Jared Kushner is working a separate channel on Gaza, meeting Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt and pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Whether any of that produces an actual reopening of Hormuz, or whether Iran's economic pain forces real concessions, remains an open question.