Washington remains committed to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and preventing “outright enemies” from dominating the Persian Gulf and its energy supplies, US President Trump said in his 2025 National Security Strategy.
The document, published late Thursday, appears to downplay the scale of the threat from Iran and offers only cursory references to Tehran.
“Iran — the region’s chief destabilizing force — has been greatly weakened by Israeli actions since October 7, 2023, and President Trump’s June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer, which significantly degraded Iran’s nuclear program,” the document reads.
“America will always have core interests in ensuring that Gulf energy supplies do not fall into the hands of an outright enemy, and that the Strait of Hormuz remain open,” it adds.
Iran’s military chiefs have floated the threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz during past standoffs with the West—with the Army and the Revolutionary Guards conducting regular drills in the Persian Gulf.
The NSS 2025 provides almost no detail on Iran’s capabilities or intentions, or what the commitment to keep open the waterway, through which much of the world's energy export flows, would entail.
Mideast peace
The broader chapter recasts the Middle East as a region the United States no longer needs to organise its foreign policy around, arguing that two pillars of past engagement—energy dependence and superpower rivalry—have faded.
The text insists “there is today less to this problem than headlines might lead one to believe,” asserting that Iran’s weakening has reduced regional instability.
Perhaps its sharpest ideological marker is a rejection of US pressure on authoritarian partners.
Earlier efforts challenging the Arab monarchies, NSS argues, were “misguided experiment with hectoring these nations,” adding that the Trump administration will “accept the region, its leaders, and its nations as they are while working together on areas of common interest.”
The text concludes that the Middle East “is no longer the constant irritant, and potential source of imminent catastrophe, that it once was,” crediting Trump for his ability “to unite the Arab world” and allowing the United States to “finally prioritize American interests.”
