Iran Can’t Find All Its Own Mines, Hindering Immediate Reopening of Hormuz

Iran is running into practical obstacles in complying with President Donald Trump’s demand for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened immediately. Tehran has not identified the exact locations of all the naval mines it scattered in the waterway during the conflict, and it also lacks the technical capability to remove them.

The New York Times reported on August 10, citing U.S. officials, that Iran has not found all the mines it laid in the Strait of Hormuz and therefore cannot allow more ships to pass. The issue is set to be a major factor in U.S.-Iran talks scheduled for this weekend in Pakistan.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, used small boats to place mines throughout the strait shortly after the war with the U.S. and Israel began last month. But the effort was unsystematic and indiscriminate, according to the report, leaving even Iranian authorities without an accurate record of where the mines were deployed.

Even where locations were recorded, currents have caused some mines to drift from their original positions, increasing the risk. Iran is now directing only toll-paying ships through safe routes. But the charts provided by Tehran offer only very limited passages because of the uncertainty surrounding the mine placements.

Trump had made the “full, immediate and safe reopening” of the Strait of Hormuz a condition of a two-week temporary ceasefire. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on August 8 that Tehran would reopen the strait, while adding that “technical limitations must be taken into account.” U.S. officials said those limitations refer to Iran’s current inability to find or remove the mines.