President Donald Trump says the U.S. Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea route for oil shipments whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy.

Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the United States and Iran in the weekslong war, experts say. Any future claims that the U.S. cleared the waterway where 20% of the world’s oil typically passes might fail to convince commercial freighters and their insurers that it is finally safe.

“You don’t even have to have laid mines — you just have to make people believe that you’ve laid mines,” said Emma Salisbury, a scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s National Security Program.

“And even if the U.S. sweeps the strait and says everything’s clear, all the Iranians have to do is say, Well, actually, you haven’t found them all yet,’” said Ms. Salisbury.

Pentagon officials told lawmakers it would likely take six months to clear the mines that Iran has set in the strait, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information. 

– AP