According to The Express Tribune, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said in a video message that the US pressure campaign focuses on three areas: restricting Iranian oil exports, disrupting digital financing and weakening the ability of Iran's security forces to pay their personnel.
Cooper claimed US forces had stopped at least $25 billion worth of Iranian crude exports in recent months and had helped other US agencies freeze nearly $350 million in cryptocurrency assets. He also said Iran-aligned groups were withholding payments to fighters and that the IRGC was struggling to pay its personnel.
He said the Strait of Hormuz was controlled by the United States and its regional partners, not Iran, and remained open for business. According to Cooper, around 400 merchant ships transited the strait in the previous seven days, and US forces helped Gulf partners move more than 100 million barrels of crude in the same period.
However, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said in its weekly overview that traffic through the strait remains about 70% below pre-conflict levels, with 125 outbound and 129 inbound transits over the past week, down from the week before.
UKMTO reported 12 attacks on vessels during the week, 10 of them in the Strait of Hormuz. It said a container ship was hit by an unidentified projectile near Ras Shaykh Masud on October 13, caught fire and sank the next day, with all crew evacuated. The agency added that most targeted vessels decline to report incidents, making the true number of attacks hard to establish.
Separately, Iran's IRGC Navy claimed on Friday that a supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude hit a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a large explosion and fire.
More on The Express Tribune.