Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iranian forces control the Strait of Hormuz and that Tehran will not allow it to reopen until the United States fulfils what he described as its obligations, adding that any tightening of the maritime blockade would be met with a military response. This is a direct restatement, from the second-ranking figure in the Iranian state, that the reopening leg of the energy thesis's invalidation condition is not on offer.