Tehran says Strait of Hormuz "under Iran's control" after Trump threat

Iran appears to be demanding compensation for an oil spill in the Strait of Hormuz that has washed up on Qeshm Island .

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported Wednesday that the country's Department of Environment said oil was spotted along parts of the island's coastline. Cleanup operations are underway and authorities are investigating the source of the spill.

In a post on X Wednesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei wrote: "Who bears responsibility for compensating these damages? Is it the nations that consume the inexpensive energy exported from our region, the shipping insurers, or the aggressors and their partners who have transformed the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman into a theater for military operations and the testing of highly destructive weaponry?"

"Every party that benefits from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz carries both a legal and a moral obligation to remediate the environmental harm inflicted upon the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman," he added, saying "preliminary evidence indicates a foreign bulk carrier as the source."

Baqaei did not go into specifics about how much compensation Iran might insist on or from whom, but did say that degradation in the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman and the local marine ecosystem has imposed "trillions of dollars in damage on Iran's coastal areas" in recent decades.

The head of Iran's Basij paramilitary unit, Hossein Taeb, asserted Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz is "under Iran's control and management," Reuters reported, citing Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.

The remarks came a day after President Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. had "total control" of the vital waterway.

More than 30 countries, including France, Britain and Canada, have condemned Iran's use of capital punishment, saying in a joint statement that the Islamic republic is executing protesters to "silence dissent."

The countries, joined by the European Union's top diplomat, said they "condemn in the strongest terms the ongoing executions of protesters and use of the death penalty" by Iran.

"The use of capital punishment to silence dissent, intimidate communities, and punish individuals exercising their human rights can never be justified," the statement said. "The people of Iran must be free to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear."

Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Germany and numerous other European nations were among those calling for Iran "to immediately end the use of the death penalty and release all those arbitrarily detained."

Iran's foreign minister brushed off the criticism, saying, "Countries like France should stop lecturing the world about 'human rights' and international law.