US envoy to UN Mike Waltz has claimed Iran stands “completely isolated” over its push to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz and its leverage over the waterway is “diminishing by the day”, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking after the US and Iran traded strikes following attacks on two ships in the strait, Waltz told Fox News that Gulf Arab states were already building alternatives with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, both expanding oil pipelines that bypass the waterway.

He added that the US will “create alternatives to our [military] basing posture” in the Middle East by “hardening some” and possibly moving others underground. “So this leverage that Iran thinks it has now is diminishing faster and faster, literally every week as we speak,” he was quoted as saying.

Waltz said even China had opposed fees or tolls in the strait and claimed that Oman had rejected Iran’s proposal to help set up the necessary infrastructure. “So they’re completely isolated here,” he asserted.