CAIRO - U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday the American military had begun a blockade of Iranian ports as part of his effort to force Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz and accept a deal to end the war that has raged for more than six weeks. Iran responded with threats on all ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, taking aim at U.S.-allied countries. At least two tankers approaching the strait Monday turned around soon after the U.S. blockade began, vessel tracker MarineTraffic said in a post on X. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations agency said the blockade restricted “the entirety of the Iranian coastline, including ports and energy infrastructure.” Its notice to mariners said transit through the strait to or from non-Iranian places was not reported to be impeded though ships “may encounter military presence.” The U.S. blockade and Iran’s threatened retaliation set up an extraordinary showdown that posed serious risks for the global economy and raised the specter that the ceasefire could collapse and the fighting could resume. Talks aimed at permanently ending the conflict -- which began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran -- failed to reach an agreement this past weekend. Trump says the blockade has begun “We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world because that’s what they’re doing,” Trump said of Iran at the White House, where he announced the blockade had started. He suggested the U.S. remains willing to engage with Iran. “I can tell you that we’ve been called by the other side,” Trump said, adding that “they want to work a deal.” Discussions between the U.S. and Iran about a second round of in-person negotiations are underway, two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the development said Monday. A diplomat from one of the mediating countries said Tehran and Washington have agreed to more talks. All four spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East. Before the blockade, Tehran had allowed some ships perceived as friendly to pass while charging considerable fees, leading to accusations it is holding the global economy hostage. Some analysts are doubtful that the United States can restore normal shipping through force alone. And it’s not clear how the blockade will work or what the dangers might be to U.S. forces. The question is essentially who can endure the most pain: Could a blockade make Iran’s economic situation untenable and force it to concede? Or will it drive global oil and other prices so high that Trump is forced to back down? The blockade could have far-reaching effects The U.S. military’s Central Command announced the blockade would be enforced “against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas” on the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM’s decision to allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the strait was a step down from Trump’s earlier threat to blockade the waterway. In a social media message, Trump said Iran’s navy had been “completely obliterated” but still had “fast attack ships.” Trump warned that “if any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.” Iran issued threats of its own. “Security in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is either for everyone or for NO ONE,” the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported Monday. “An Iranian military statement said: “NO PORT in the region will be safe.” The threats halted the limited ship traffic that resumed in the strait since the ceasefire, according to a report from Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Marine trackers say over 40 commercial ships have crossed since the start of the ceasefire last week, down from 100 or more vessel passages per day before the war. The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil since the war began, much of it likely carried by so-called dark transits that evade Western sanctions and oversight. But the effects will be felt far beyond Iran. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, hovered Monday just under US$100 per barrel. It cost roughly $70 per barrel before the war. Iran says `if you fight, we will fight’ Top-ranking Iranian officials threatened retaliation. Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, dismissed U.S. the threat of a U.S. blockade as “more bluffing than reality.” “It will make the current situation (Trump) is in more complicated and makes the market -- which he is angry about -- more turbulent,” he said in a post on X. The Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, addressed Trump in a statement: “If you fight, we will fight.” Meanwhile, Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, demanded compensation from five Middle Eastern countries -- Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates -- that Iran says violated international law by aiding the war effort against it, the Islamic Republic’s state-run media reported. Legal experts are watching U.S. military officials have offered few details about how the blockade will actually work. The U.S. Navy has 16 warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Middle East, a defense official said. A second defense official said no American warships are in the Persian Gulf, which forms most of Iran’s coastline. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations. Under international law, the blockade must be impartially enforced. Legal experts will also be watching to see if the U.S. allows humanitarian aid to reach Iran. “How it is carried out will determine whether it is lawful or not,” said Todd Huntley, a retired Navy captain and director of Georgetown University’s national security law program. Ceasefire holds after talks end without agreement The blockade threat came after marathon U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement on Saturday. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the talks stalled after Iran refused to accept American terms on refraining from developing a nuclear weapon. Vance told FOX News Channel’s “Special Report” that some progress was made on nuclear issues, but he felt Iran’s negotiators couldn’t make a deal without approval from Tehran. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. However, it has pushed forward with steps that could give it the ability to build a nuclear weapon, including enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels and developing long-range missiles potentially capable of delivering a bomb. Iran’s ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, said the main sticking points for Tehran were its nuclear program, war reparations and sanctions relief. The ceasefire expires April 22. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,089 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed. By Samy Magdy, Julia Frankel And Mike Corder. Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, Frankel from New York. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Konstantin Toropin, Collin Binkley, Ben Finley and David Klepper in Washington; Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; Jill Lawless in London; Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis, Tunisia; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.
