‘Pick up the phone’: IRGC appears to rebuff US Strait of Hormuz ‘hotline’

Lead

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has rejected US claims that a direct military hotline has been established to manage tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. The denial comes after US officials suggested that military-to-military communication channels had been set up between Washington and Tehran, following a period of heightened naval clashes in the strategic waterway.

Coverage Comparison

Two Iranian officials have publicly addressed the issue, offering broadly consistent but slightly differing accounts of the state of US-Iran communications. The IRGC, through its spokesman Hossein Mohebi, flatly denied any direct military line, stating that the Strait of Hormuz is Iranian territory and that the United States has no connection to it. Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, acknowledged that communication channels exist but specified that they are between political agencies, not between the militaries.

Al Jazeera reported that the IRGC’s denial came after US Vice President JD Vance suggested that a channel involving IRGC and US Central Command (CENTCOM) personnel had been agreed. Al Jazeera also noted that the US and Iran exchanged fire after commercial vessels sailing outside a channel designated by Tehran were targeted by unknown perpetrators.

TASS, the Russian state news agency, reported Baghaei’s comments from a news conference, in which he clarified that the communication channels are between the two countries’ political agencies — the Foreign Ministry on the Iranian side and a relevant US body on the other. TASS also carried the IRGC’s statement, attributed to Al Jazeera, rejecting any direct line of communication on the Strait of Hormuz.

Key Claims

• The IRGC has rejected US claims of a military hotline, with spokesman Hossein Mohebi writing on X that the claims are “completely false” and that the Strait of Hormuz is Iranian territory with no connection to the United States.
• Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that communication channels have been established between political agencies, not between the militaries.
• The US and Iran exchanged fire after commercial vessels were targeted, according to Al Jazeera.
• The US Central Command has targeted Iranian military facilities, as reported by Al Jazeera.
• Iran demands vessels use a designated route in the Strait of Hormuz, which was the context for the targeting of commercial vessels, as reported by Al Jazeera.