WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered a US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in response to Iran’s “unyielding” refusal to give up its nuclear ambitions during peace talks in Islamabad. While acknowledging that the marathon negotiations in Pakistan had gone “well” and “most points were agreed to,” Trump said Tehran had refused to concede on the issue of its nuclear program.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”
US Central Command announced that it will blockade all Iranian ports beginning Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, or 5:30 p.m. in Iran.
CENTCOM said the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.” It said it would still allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump and his advisers were also looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran in addition to the Hormuz blockade as a way to break a stalemate in peace talks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing officials and people familiar with the matter.
US Vice President JD Vance left Pakistan without a deal after weekend talks with a team led by Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Tehran’s delegation also included Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We’ll see if the Iranians accept it,” Vance told reporters.
In two lengthy posts on Truth Social, Trump slammed Iran for promising to open the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes, and “knowingly” failing to deliver.
“They say they put mines in the water, even though all of their Navy, and most of their ‘mine droppers,’ have been completely blown up. They may have done so, but what ship owner would want to take the chance?” Trump said.
Iran had effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz for weeks, since the United States and Israel launched a bombing campaign against the country more than six weeks ago.
On Saturday, the US military announced that two US warships had transited the strait at the start of a mine clearance operation.
Trump wants to weaken Iran’s key leverage in the war after demanding that it reopen the strait to all global traffic on the waterway that was responsible for 20 percent of global oil shipping before fighting began.
Traffic in the Strait has been limited even in the days since the ceasefire. Marine trackers say over 40 commercial ships have crossed since the start of the ceasefire.
A US blockade could further rattle global energy markets. “It’s going to be all or none, and that’s the way it is,” Trump told Fox News.
Trump said on social media that he told the Navy to “seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.” He said other nations would be involved but did not name them.
Freedom of peaceful navigation is a basic principle of international maritime trade.
