U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with an Arizona local television station that, as geopolitical conditions change, more energy shipments will in future bypass the Strait of Hormuz, and that the waterway will gradually lose strategic importance. Jiemian News reported that he also said the strait would not return to its previous state because Iran is trying to control the choke point, and that over the next two years it would become an ordinary waterway and become less important. Bessent said more than 50% and even as much as 70% of energy transported through the Strait of Hormuz would gradually be shifted to underground pipelines.