US President Donald Trump said Friday that he could soon declare the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the United States,” escalating his rhetoric over the strategically vital waterway amid the ongoing conflict with Iran. “Pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States,” Trump said during remarks at the Police Academy Center for Training and Intelligence.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the United States has control of the Strait. Earlier this week, he told reporters, “They don’t have control. We have total control. We own it,” and said the US Navy had swept the waterway for mines.

But Iran has rejected the claim and insists that the Strait remains under its control and management. The dispute comes as traffic through the waterway has fallen sharply during the war, with experts saying the reality is more complicated than either side’s claims.

Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb, commander of Iran’s paramilitary Basij Organisation, said the Strait was “under the management and control of the Islamic Republic.”

“Today you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic Republic, and our country continues on its path in complete security,” Taeb said, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

Iran’s joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, also said that no vessel could transit the Strait without Tehran’s permission.

The command called US claims about normal passage through the waterway “lies and falsehoods.”

Since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28, Tehran has effectively blocked the Strait, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transited before the war.

The US subsequently imposed a naval blockade on Iranian shipping and ports while saying it would protect freedom of navigation for vessels travelling to and from non-Iranian ports.

Iranian military political official Rasoul Sanaei-Rad said Tehran would not reopen the Strait unless the US fulfilled commitments under an interim deal aimed at ending the war. He also warned that Iran would respond more forcefully in any future conflict.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi separately accused Washington of “miscalculat[ing]” because of intelligence failures and called US actions in the Strait of Hormuz “an even bigger miscalculation.”