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Iranian officials and state-linked media on Saturday intensified warnings that Tehran now views control of the Strait of Hormuz as a critical strategic priority as the United States awaits Iran’s latest response to a proposed agreement aimed at ending the regional conflict.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tehran was still reviewing the latest U.S. proposal being exchanged through intermediaries and dismissed suggestions that Iran was operating on President Donald Trump’s timeline.

“We do our own work, we don’t pay attention to deadlines or timing,” Baghaei told reporters Saturday.

The remarks came as Iranian political and military figures increasingly framed the Strait of Hormuz as a powerful geopolitical weapon amid continuing tensions with the United States and Israel following months of conflict.

Mohammad Mokhber, a senior adviser to former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a former vice president under late President Ebrahim Raisi, compared Iran’s leverage over the strait to nuclear capabilities in comments published Friday by the state-linked Mehr news agency.

“In reality, it is a capability on the level of an atomic bomb, because when you have a capability that can affect the entire global economy with a single decision, that is an enormous capability,” Mokhber said.

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, with roughly one-fifth of global oil shipments passing through the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

Iranian state television further amplified the message Saturday by comparing the strait to a crucial military position in early Islamic history.

Hossein Hosseini, a host on the state-linked Ofogh television channel, described the waterway as “the Uhud pass of Iran,” referencing the Battle of Uhud near Medina.

“Smart Iranians are careful not to abandon this Uhud pass, not to give it back,” Hosseini said. “The conditions of the strait will never return to what they were before.”

The tougher rhetoric comes as U.S. and Iranian forces have traded fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz in recent days while Washington maintains pressure on Iran’s shipping and energy exports.

Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was also featured prominently Friday in clips replayed by state-linked media in which he defended Tehran’s longstanding threat to shut down the strait if Iran itself were prevented from using the Persian Gulf.

“If the Persian Gulf is unusable for us, we will make the Persian Gulf unusable for others; this has been our policy,” Rafsanjani said in the archival remarks.

Meanwhile, divisions inside Iran over negotiations with Washington continue surfacing publicly.

Hard-line lawmakers and commentators have increasingly criticized renewed diplomatic engagement with the United States and argued Tehran should not make major concessions involving its nuclear program, missile arsenal or regional posture.

Ali Khezrian, a member of Iran’s National Security Commission in Parliament, told state media Friday that Tehran “has not engaged in any sort of nuclear negotiations” and accused the Trump administration of promoting “the lie” of a potential agreement.

The Trump administration has continued pursuing indirect talks through regional mediators while also maintaining military and economic pressure on Tehran. U.S. officials have publicly expressed hope that negotiations could eventually produce a broader agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear activities and regional security issues.