The American Central Command, CENTCOM, on Tuesday, November 5, called the claim of the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Navy that the American forces had withdrawn hundreds of kilometers from the Strait of Hormuz as "false".
CENTCOM said U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East are still "present and alert" in the Strait of Hormuz and its surrounding waters, noting the presence of CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper in that waterway on Sunday.
Ali Azmai, commander of the Revolutionary Guards Navy, claimed in the past that American forces are no longer in the Persian Gulf and have withdrawn to a distance of 600-700 km from the Strait of Hormuz.
Admiral Cooper flies over the Strait of Hormuz in a US Army Chinook helicopter on Sunday, November 3. Centcom says more than 3,000 commercial ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz with the support of this command in the past six months, and that the United States and its regional partners control this international waterway. This claim regarding control of the Strait of Hormuz is America's official position.