Update:  This statement by the Iranian commander directly contradicts the claims of US Central Command, the US Treasury Secretary, and the London Telegraph: https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/10/04/777632/US-forces-fled-over-1000-km-from-Iranian-borders-says-top-IRGC-commander- 

I have come to the conclusion that journalism in the West has been replaced by hired narratives and that reporters report the narrative that they are hired to tell.  It is a new form of vanity press in which interest groups hire a propaganda service to market their agenda.  

I will present a current example. On September 28 US Central Command denied that Iran had control of the Strait of Hormuz.  Central Command said the US sank the Iranian Navy and that "thousands of ships have passed through freely along with more than 1 billion barrels of oil just over the past few months."

The previous day Trump's Secretary of the Treasury said on Fox News that the Strait of Hormuz was open–except to Iranian oil "which we are not letting out"–and that 15-22 millions of barrels of oil are passing through the strait daily. In other words, the energy crisis is over and has been according to US Central Command during "the past few months" while we have had an energy crisis..

The London Daily Telegraph, once a respectable Tory newspaper, has become a "hire to have your story told" organization.  David Blair, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, wrote in the Telegraph 2 days ago that 

"It has taken a monumental effort by the US navy but the tankers are steaming through the Strait of Hormuz once again, carrying about as much oil as they did before Donald Trump launched his onslaught against Iran.

"New and independent data confirms that the US has, at least for now, succeeded in breaking Iran's stranglehold on this crucial junction of the world. An average of 13.5 million barrels of oil transited the Strait every day in the week until Monday, according to Kpler, a company that tracks global shipping, more or less matching the pre-war average.

"Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia has repaired the pipeline that links its biggest oilfields to the Red Sea, after Iranian-backed militias launched a drone attack from Iraq on the night of September 10.

"The outcome is that total oil exports from the Middle East through all routes are running at 20.5 million barrels per day – or 89 per cent of the 2025 level – according to analysts at JP Morgan, who noted a 'remarkable recovery for a region still at war'".

"Iran, by contrast, cannot load a single tanker or export any oil by sea because the US navy is enforcing a total blockade of its ports. Suddenly the regime's vital oil revenues are plummeting towards zero.

"So far, Iran's furious attempts to retaliate by choking oil shipments from the rest of the Middle East are demonstrably failing.