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Wright Discusses Iran Talks and Strait of Hormuz Flows on ABC's This Week

June 21, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:08:17

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What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined ABC’s This Week on June 21, 2026, according to the Department of Energy, as the Vice President was in Switzerland for meetings with the Iranians. Wright said the first dialogue would set out Iranian goals and trade-offs, and that U.S. military actions — destroying Iranian military capabilities and forcing a way through the Strait of Hormuz without dialogue — had put Iran in a massively different situation with less leverage, as he stated it.

On the strait, Wright said 55 ships came through two days earlier and 67 the previous day, with oil and oil-products volumes about equal to pre-war levels, as he stated the figures. He described three channels — a mined normal navigational channel needing demining, a northern route by the Iranian islands, and a southern route the U.S. military had escorted ships through for several weeks — as he stated them.

Wright declined to predict oil or gasoline prices but said flows had returned to normal and prices would continue heading down, citing growing American production and surging Venezuelan production, as he stated it. He said U.S. action had degraded Iran’s missile-making ability by about 90 percent, as he stated the figure, and that frozen Iranian funds would be released only with meaningful, provable progress in nuclear talks, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The interview is Wright’s contemporaneous account of the Hormuz reopening — 67 ships in a day at pre-war volumes, as he stated it — and of the administration’s stated condition linking any frozen-funds release to provable nuclear progress.

Scoreboard watch

Wright stated that oil and products flows through the strait had already returned to pre-war volumes as of June 21, 2026 — a checkable claim against subsequent shipping and price data.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos - June 21, 2026”, 2026-06-21 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-06-21). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.