TEHRAN — Iran on Saturday fired back at U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz part of U.S. territory, saying the crucial energy waterway it has blockaded "will remain Iranian." Trump has repeatedly said the strait, which Tehran effectively closed at the start of the Middle East war in late February, is under U.S. control — an assertion the Islamic republic denies. "The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X. "This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran's command." Trump told a political rally in New York state on Friday that after the U.S. defeats Iran, "pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States." "It's true," he added. An unnamed White House official later clarified that Trump was joking, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last week, a top Iranian official laid out a laundry list of conditions for reopening the strait, including an end to the "war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon,