Iran's navy has full control of the waters east of the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, a senior army commander said on July 29.

The claim is not new. Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari made a near-identical statement in June, when he said no vessel could pass the strait without Iranian permission. It sits awkwardly against events in the same waters. The US imposed a naval blockade of Iran on April 13, and Sayyari himself has said the Iranian destroyer Dena was struck by US forces off Sri Lanka with 104 crew killed, in the stretch of the northern Indian Ocean he describes as under Iranian control.

Sayyari, chief of staff and coordinating deputy of the Iranian army, said naval personnel held complete intelligence and operational dominance over the area east of the strait, the northern Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman, according to the armed forces outlet Defa Press. No movement took place in those waters without their authorisation, he said.

He said security across the country's land, sea and air borders was good and stable, and that navy personnel maintained a firm presence across West Asia.

Iran divides maritime responsibility between two forces. The regular navy, which Sayyari commanded from 2007 to 2017, operates in the Gulf of Oman, the Indian Ocean and beyond, and was reoriented towards blue-water deployments under him. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy is responsible for the Persian Gulf and the strait itself.

Sayyari said in June that the Dena had been taking part in a training and friendship exercise and was not carrying combat weapons when it was hit. He put the toll at 104 dead with 20 bodies unrecovered, and said Iran would take revenge and pursue the case through international and human rights bodies.

He attributed the armed forces' current capabilities to Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader assassinated in February.

Iran closed the strait to shipping linked to the US and Israel after strikes on Iranian targets. Washington began an air campaign on March 19 aimed at reopening it and imposed the blockade the following month. Iran's foreign ministry said on July 27 that the waterway remains shut.

Oman has put a proposal to Tehran for a joint regional mechanism to manage the strait, under which vessels would pay voluntary fees for navigation services rather than tolls set by Iran.