US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that various countries were “putting pressure on Iran” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz once a peace deal is agreed on, or even if it is not.

Responding to a media query in Singapore, he said that Hormuz would be “an open strait, a toll-free strait that the entire world could use”.

Hegseth said that the “future in energy is actually the American future”.

The defence secretary asserted that the US-imposed blockade of Iranian ports is “ironclad” and has “put the real pressure on Iran”.

“They want to say that they control the strait, but we do, and everything behind the scenes shows that we are in control when it comes to that,” he added.