The Strait of Hormuz is expected to remain closed until the United States and Iran reach an agreement to permanently end hostilities, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

When asked when it would be safe for ships to resume transit through the critical maritime chokepoint, Wright said, "After a deal is reached."

The energy secretary insisted that "it won't be in the too-distant future. People are ready to go, ships are there. The United States put two warships through the strait. We can open it one way or the other, but the best way to do it is to have an end to the conflict and a defanged and dearmed Iran."

Pressed on whether that could happen within two weeks, Wright said the timeline was "probably a reasonable" estimate.

Wright also said that gasoline prices may not drop below $3 until next year.

When CNN asked when it would be "realistic" for Americans to expect gas prices to dip below $3 per gallon, the energy secretary said "I don't know. That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year."

But Wright insisted that "prices have likely peaked and they will start going down. Certainly, with a resolution of this conflict, you will see prices go down. Prices across the board on energy prices will go down."

He emphasized that "under $3 a gallon is pretty tremendous in inflation-adjusted terms. We had that in the Trump administration, but we hadn't seen that in inflation-adjusted terms for quite a long time. We will get back there, for sure."

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