The IRGC claimed on 18 July that two tankers struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz and declared the strait completely closed; CENTCOM called the claim false within hours.1
No independent maritime source had arbitrated the competing accounts as of 18 July. The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) is Iran's ideological military force and has controlled the Hormuz closure messaging throughout the war; CENTCOM (US Central Command) runs the strikes and the blockade. One says the world's busiest oil chokepoint is shut by mines; the other says nothing of the sort happened.
For the third time this month, a declared Iranian closure meets a flat CENTCOM denial with no neutral party to settle it. On 12 July the IRGC Navy struck the container ship GFS Galaxy and declared Hormuz closed, only for CENTCOM to insist the strait stayed open to traffic. CENTCOM has denied each declared closure in turn, and no neutral maritime authority has confirmed one yet.
The stakes turn on verification. A mined strait would be a genuine escalation, closing a corridor that carries about a fifth of the world's seaborne oil; an unverified claim is cheap leverage that costs Iran nothing to assert. Until an independent maritime authority confirms a mine strike, the closure exists only in IRGC statements, and CENTCOM's denial is the only counter-weight on the record.
