Iran has issued a mocking response after US President Donald Trump threatened to declare the Strait of Hormuz part of the United States. Iran’s Hyderabad consulate in India posted a map of the United States on its social media account, marking California as “new territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Trump shared the original image on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, showing a map of the Strait of Hormuz with the strategic waterway circled and labeled “New US Territory” underneath. In doing so, he repeated an earlier remark of his about turning the strait into US territory once the war ends.
The White House later reposted Trump’s post from its official account on the US social media platform X.
In response, Iran’s official account in Hyderabad posted a map of the United States with California marked in blue, labeled: “New territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The mocking map was released by Iranian diplomats shortly after Trump’s recent remarks on the Strait of Hormuz. It was largely intended to highlight the absurdity of Trump’s claim that he could unilaterally declare any territory part of his own country.
Earlier, speaking at a police academy in New York on Friday, Trump claimed Iran was “losing badly,” and that once the country was fully defeated, he would “very soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz part of the United States.
Trump also said the US naval blockade had effectively already turned the Strait of Hormuz into US territory. In his words, no ship would be able to pass through the waterway unless the United States allowed it.
Iran, however, directly rejected Trump’s claim. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized through a tweet, by sending an aircraft carrier, or by issuing any order. “The Strait of Hormuz was Iran’s, is Iran’s, and will remain Iran’s,” he said.
Gharibabadi added that just as Trump had correctly written the name “Persian Gulf,” his “misconception” about the Strait of Hormuz would also soon be corrected.
Iran’s release of a map showing California as “new territory” was essentially a satirical response to that remark. Alongside this exchange, international law experts have also raised questions over how practically enforceable Trump’s claim over the Strait of Hormuz actually is.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report