The Pentagon denied that an article in The Washington Post said that clearing the Strait of Hormuz of Iranian mines could take six months.
Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper wrote on 22 April that U.S. lawmakers were told: Iran has probably planted 20 or more advanced mines, some of which are launched remotely using GPS technology to make them difficult to detect.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell dismissed the information, saying that the media “cherry-pick information from leaks that favours them, and much of it is false”.
He added that a prolonged closure of the strait was “impossible and totally unacceptable” to US Defence Secretary Pete Hagseth.
Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, an important waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes, has driven up energy prices and undermined confidence in shipping.
Britain and France are leading talks with more than 30 countries to form a defence coalition to open the strait and conduct clearance operations.