Trump says U.S. will blockade Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and will charge ships for safe passage

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and will charge other ships for safe passage. Iran has insisted it controls the critical waterway, as another exchange of fire threatened a return to all-out war.

The U.S. had until now said the strait should remain open to all without tolls, as it was before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the U.S. or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.

The latest exchange of fire, sparked by an Iranian attack on a container ship, had already cast further doubt on the interim peace deal reached last month. Washington lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of that deal, which also called for the strait to be fully reopened.

“We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”

The president said the U.S. would be “reimbursed” by 20% of the value of cargo to help cover “any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security.”

Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with the interim peace deal. It has vowed to fight back against any U.S. interference.

The struggle over the strait is escalating

A fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through the strait before Iran effectively shut it down at the start of the war, driving up global prices of energy, fertilizer and other goods. Traffic had picked up after last month’s agreement but remained well below prewar levels.

The American military has tried to establish a route through the strait along the coast of Oman that would be outside of Iranian control. Iran has attacked ships using that route, saying the U.S. is violating the interim peace deal. The U.S. has attacked Iran in response and ended waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in U.S. dollars.

Iran and the U.S. are nearly halfway through the 60-day period in which they were supposed to negotiate a permanent end to the war and an agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

The U.S. military said it struck dozens of sites on Monday in response to the Iranian attack on the container ship the day before, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment, and small boats. It said Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz.

Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote that Tehran would fight for the strait.

“We defend it so that in the future, for the passage of our ships, we are not forced to pay tribute to the enemy!” he wrote on X.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country’s theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, said the Strait of Hormuz is “our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it.”

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called for the strait to be open, as it was before the war. “Freedom of navigation has to be respected,” she said.

Traffic through the Oman route dropped over the weekend “to minimal levels, indicating that operators continue to prioritize perceived security over more direct transit options,” the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com said.

U.S.-allied Arab states report another wave of attacks

Missile alert sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage in either country.

In Jordan, the kingdom’s military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that “resulted in zero casualties or material damage.” Jordan also hosts U.S. military forces and aircraft.

In Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and said at least two people were killed, according to state-run IRNA news agency. Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes in the eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, which is on a coast of the Gulf of Oman.

The attacks continued hours after the U.S. ended its strikes — again raising the possibility of Gulf Arab states retaliating against Iran. There were unclaimed attacks on Iran on Thursday.

A base belonging to the armed wing of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region came under drone attack on Monday, according to Rebaz Sharifi, a local commander. There were no immediate details on casualties or damage.

No group immediately claimed responsibility. Iran supports a number of powerful militias in Iraq.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the chaos gripping the region, telling journalists that Americans have “slaughtered” various components of the memorandum of understanding’s 14 clauses.

Baghaei also said Iran wouldn’t agree to visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency to nuclear sites the U.S. bombed in 2025, where Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to be entombed.

Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press