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Washington: President Donald Trump says the US Navy is removing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea route for oil shipments, whose disruption poses a growing threat to the global economy.The search for underwater explosives could take months, experts say, despite a tenuous ceasefire in the weeks-long war between the United States and Iran. Any future claim that the US has cleared the waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil typically passes may fail to convince commercial carriers and their insurers that it is ultimately safe. “You don’t have to lay mines \u2013 you just have to convince people that you’ve laid mines,” said Emma Salisbury, a scholar with the National Security Program at the Institute for Foreign Policy Research.Pentagon officials recently told US lawmakers it would take six months to clear mines placed by Iran in the strait, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. This information was given during a classified briefing at the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.Asked about the estimate, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Friday that the military would not speculate on a timeline, but did not rule it out. “Reportedly, it was something that was said,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon news conference. “But we feel confident in our ability to clear any mines we identify in due course.”The top US commander in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, recently told reporters that the military would work to clear the strait of mines. He did not give details. There is no indication that the US military is now using warships, its most visible mine-clearing assets, in the strait.But the Navy also has small teams of divers and explosive ordnance disposal technicians in the region who are capable of clearing mines. They are a less obvious target than a large warship. Experts also say some mine-clearing equipment can be removed from ships and deployed from land. An expert says that it is easier for Iran to lay mines than it is to find them.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Kevin Wolf) Washington: President Donald Trump says the US Navy is removing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea route for oil shipments, whose disruption poses a growing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4583,5921,4297,4255],"class_list":{"0":"post-98415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-clear","9":"tag-deny","10":"tag-hegseth","11":"tag-months"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98417,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98415\/revisions\/98417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}