New: Two claims by CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper in the recently released video of US Central Command are false as stated. In the video, Cooper says that the Iranian navy is "at the bottom of the sea" and that no Iranian oil has been exported. The first claim conflicts with earlier statements by Cooper himself. He acknowledged that Iran maintains "some residual capability," including operational speedboats still seen during Strait of Hormuz crossings. Other US estimates also said that more than 90% of Iran's regular fleet was destroyed, while only about half of the IRGC's small attack boats were eliminated. Iran's naval forces were severely degraded, but not completely destroyed. The second claim is also false if taken as stated. Independent maritime surveillance has documented Iranian oil exports despite the US blockade, including LPG, methanol and jet fuel. Crude oil of Iranian origin already located outside Iran also continued to move in ship-to-ship transfers to buyers in Asia. Available evidence supports the narrower claim that the blockade has sharply reduced, and perhaps actually halted, new Iranian crude oil exports from Iranian ports. However, that's not what Cooper says in the video. His statement that no Iranian oil has been exported is considerably broad and is contradicted by documented oil shipments.

New: Two claims by CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper in the recently released video of US Central Command are false as stated. In the video, Cooper says that the Iranian navy is "at the bottom of the sea" and that no Iranian oil has been exported. The first claim conflicts with earlier statements by Cooper himself. He acknowledged that Iran maintains "some residual capability," including operational speedboats still seen during Strait of Hormuz crossings. Other US estimates also said that more than 90% of Iran's regular fleet was destroyed, while only about half of the IRGC's small attack boats were eliminated. Iran's naval forces were severely degraded, but not completely destroyed. The second claim is also false if taken as stated. Independent maritime surveillance has documented Iranian oil exports despite the US blockade, including LPG, methanol and jet fuel. Crude oil of Iranian origin already located outside Iran also continued to move in ship-to-ship transfers to buyers in Asia. Available evidence supports the narrower claim that the blockade has sharply reduced, and perhaps actually halted, new Iranian crude oil exports from Iranian ports. However, that's not what Cooper says in the video. His statement that no Iranian oil has been exported is considerably broad and is contradicted by documented oil shipments.