Florida, June 11 -- Amid escalating tensions with Iran, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Wednesday (local time) said that the United States "controls" the Strait of Hormuz.

He also asserted that US operations have ensured the continued movement of commercial shipping and oil through the key waterway despite Iranian opposition.

Speaking to the reporters outside of US CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Florida, Hegseth said, "... the U.S. Central Command has known that Project Freedom, the idea of running ships through the Strait of Hormuz, has never stopped. It just went underground... we've been protecting commercial shipping going through the Strait of Hormuz, as the president announced, to the tune of over 100 million barrels that have...