• Centcom claims two destroyers creating ‘safe pathway’ for commerce; Tehran denies reports
• 3 supertankers make first passage since ceasefire

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that American military have begun an operation to clear Iranian-laid sea mines, while three supertankers passed through the vital waterway for the first time since a ceasefire was declared in the US-Iran conflict.

“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform, adding that “all 28” of Iran’s “mine dropper boats are also lying at the bottom of the sea”.

Trump framed the operation as “a favour” to countries like China, Japan and France that “don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves”.

He insisted that Iran is “LOSING BIG!” in the conflict. “The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may ‘bunk’ into one of their sea mines,” Trump wrote.

Expanding on Trump’s announcement, US military said two of its warships sailed through the Strait of Hormuz as part of a plan to start removing mines from the vital conduit for the global oil trade.

US Central Command said the mission was aimed at “setting conditions” to clear the strategic chokepoint, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes. The waterway had been effectively closed for weeks amid the conflict, disrupting global energy markets.

“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, said in a statement.

The guided-missile destroyers USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy conducted the transit, marking the first by American warships since the conflict began. Centcom said that “additional US forces including underwater drones” could join the effort.

However, reports from the region were conflicting. US media outlet Axios reported that the naval operation was not coordinated with Tehran. A senior Iranian military official, quoted by state television, denied that US Navy ships had crossed the strait.

Later, Iranian state television reported that a warning was issued to a US military ship that it would be attacked within 30 minutes if it crossed the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait has been virtually blocked by Tehran since the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on Feb 28.

The blockade sent oil prices soaring and spiked US gasoline prices, even though most of the oil from the region is not sent to the United States. Reopening the waterway was a condition of a fragile ceasefire put in place earlier this week.

As the military operation got underway, three supertankers successfully navigated the strait using a trial passage, according to shipping data.

The Liberia-flagged Serifos and the China-flagged Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai, each capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil, were the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the ceasefire.

The tankers are carrying crude from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. The two Chinese vessels are chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese energy giant Sinopec, LSEG data showed.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2026