Starting on March 18, 2026, posts appeared on social media claiming that Argentina deployed several frigates to accompany oil tankers and other ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The posts appeared as the United States and Israel exchanged missile strikes with Iran, some of which targeted oil and natural gas facilities across the region.
Since Feb. 28, 2026, when the war began, Iran has prevented ships from sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, half of which lies within Iranian territorial waters. The strait is 20 miles across at its narrowest point, well within range of an attack from the Iranian mainland. It's also a critical chokepoint for global energy production because ships passing through it carry a large amount of oil and natural gas output from the Middle East.
The posts about Argentina likely spread because they played off U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion of a naval coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. However, Snopes found no evidence supporting the claim that Argentina had sent ships to participate in such an endeavor, and an early post sharing the rumor appeared to have been generated with artificial intelligence. As such, we've rated this claim false.
We contacted the Argentine navy for comment on the allegation, but they had not responded at time of publication.
Snopes checked both international and Argentine news outlets for potential announcements of the decision. We also checked the social media accounts of Argentina's president, Javier Milei, who has verbally aligned himself with the U.S. and Israel.
Several of the posts sharing the claim cited the Facebook page American Resolve as the source of the claim. Snopes found found that page sharing the claim in the early hours of March 18, the earliest example of the claim we could find.
Then, we ran the text in that Facebook post through GPTZero, a program that detects AI-generated text. It found a 100% chance the post's text was AI-generated. While this alone did not mean the claim about Argentina sending ships to the Strait of Hormuz was false (especially given that AI-detection software is not always reliable), it was another sign pointing in that direction.
Throughout the war, Trump has attempted to persuade American allies to help reopen the strait, as its closure sent oil and gas prices across the world skyrocketing.
On March 19, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan released a joint statement saying they were ready to "contribute to appropriate efforts" to reopen the strait. The European countries previously rejected Trump's suggestion of a naval coalition to reopen the strait, instead calling for both sides to stop the strikes.
Iran, meanwhile, has claimed it is only attacking its enemies. Other countries, including India, have directly negotiated with Iran in order to secure passage of their vessels, according to Al Jazeera and The Associated Press.