Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a statement on Saturday that his country was "now courageously defending the land, water, and flag that belong to it."

Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly since the beginning of the war, said in the statement that Iran in fighting against the U.S. and Israel was "battling against the two leading armies of disbelief and Arrogance."

"And the Islamic Army has exposed those armies' weakness and abjectness to the world," the statement said. "In the same way that its drones strike the US and the Zionist murderers like lightning, its valiant navy is also ready to inflict new bitter defeats on its enemies."

Two Iranian boats approached and fired on a tanker off Oman’s coast on Saturday morning, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations organization said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships were said to have approached a tanker about 20 nautical miles off the northeastern coast of Oman, according to the UKMTO, a maritime security monitoring group.

"The Master of the Tanker reports being approached by 2 IRGC gun boats, no VHF challenge that then fires upon the tanker," UKMTO said, describing a typical emergency vessel-to-vessel radio communication or "challenge."

The tanker and its crew were reported safe, UKTMO said, adding that an authorities were investigating.

The Strait of Hormuz "has returned to its previous state," Iranian state TV reported on Saturday, quoting a spokesperson for the Iranian Armed Forces.

The spokesperson said Tehran had previously allowed the managed passage of a limited number of oil tankers and commercial vessels "in good faith" following recent negotiations, Iran state TV IRIB reported.

The spokesperson accused the United States of failing to uphold its commitments and continuing "piracy and maritime robbery under the so-called blockade."

"As a result, control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state," the spokesperson reportedly said, adding that the strategic waterway is now under "strict management and control" by Iran's military.

The current Iranian negotiations leader, Mohammed Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, posted a statement to social media Friday evening stating President Donald Trump "made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which are false."

Ghalibaf's statement also echoes what Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmael Baqaei said earlier -- that Iran would not allow navigation in the Strait of Hormuz if the American blockade continued, and that navigation will be carried out based on a "designated route" and with "Iranian permission."

He added that the "open or closed status of the Strait and the regulations governing it will be determined by the field, not social media."

The statement went on to say: "Media warfare and public opinion engineering are an important part of the war, and the Iranian nation will not be affected by these tricks."

-ABC News' Victoria Beaule