\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway Saturday after the U.S. said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.Related video above: Pentagon warns Iran as ceasefire deadlines nearIran\u2019s joint military command said Saturday that \u201ccontrol of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state … under strict management and control of the armed forces.\u201d It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.The announcement came the morning after U.S. President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait’s reopening Friday, the American blockade \u201cwill remain in full force\u201d until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again Friday on hopes the U.S. and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil passes through the strait, and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.Control over the strait has proven to be one of Iran\u2019s main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. An end to Israel\u2019s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week\u2019s ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that the deal did not cover Lebanon.But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week\u2019s ceasefire agreement between Iran and the U.S. and warned the strait would not stay open if the U.S. blockade remained in effect.A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran\u2019s approval.U.S. forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began Monday, U.S. Central Command said on X.Pakistan announces progress toward new dealDespite the escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistani officials say the United States and Iran are still moving closer to a deal ahead of the April 22 ceasefire deadline.The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. Speaking at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey, Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the ceasefire in Lebanon was a positive sign, noting that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had been a key sticking point before talks in Islamabad ended \u201cvery close\u201d to an agreement last weekend.Pakistan\u2019s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Tehran, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Antalya, the military and Sharif’s office said. Pakistan is expected to host a second round of talks between Iran and the U.S. early next week.Questions linger about Lebanon truceEven though mediators were optimistic, it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce that it did not play a role in negotiating and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.Trump said in another post that Israel is \u201cprohibited\u201d by the U.S. from further strikes on Lebanon and that \u201cenough is enough\u201d in the Israel-Hezbollah war.The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defense.Shortly before Trump\u2019s post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon \u201cat the request of my friend President Trump,\u201d but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90% of Hezbollah\u2019s missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces \u201chave not finished yet\u201d with the dismantling of the group.In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.The war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.__ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Andrew Wilks in Antalya, Turkey contributed to this report.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCAIRO \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway Saturday after the U.S. said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.<\/p>\n
Related video above: Pentagon warns Iran as ceasefire deadlines near<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s joint military command said Saturday that \u201ccontrol of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state … under strict management and control of the armed forces.\u201d It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.<\/p>\n
The announcement came the morning after U.S. President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait’s reopening Friday, the American blockade \u201cwill remain in full force\u201d until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.<\/p>\n
The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again Friday on hopes the U.S. and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil passes through the strait, and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.<\/p>\n
Control over the strait has proven to be one of Iran\u2019s main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.<\/p>\n
Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. An end to Israel\u2019s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week\u2019s ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that the deal did not cover Lebanon.<\/p>\n
But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week\u2019s ceasefire agreement between Iran and the U.S. and warned the strait would not stay open if the U.S. blockade remained in effect.<\/p>\n
A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n
U.S. forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began Monday, U.S. Central Command said on X.<\/p>\n
Pakistan announces progress toward new deal<\/p>\n
Despite the escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistani officials say the United States and Iran are still moving closer to a deal ahead of the April 22 ceasefire deadline.<\/p>\n
The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. Speaking at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey, Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the ceasefire in Lebanon was a positive sign, noting that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had been a key sticking point before talks in Islamabad ended \u201cvery close\u201d to an agreement last weekend.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Tehran, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Antalya, the military and Sharif’s office said. Pakistan is expected to host a second round of talks between Iran and the U.S. early next week.<\/p>\n
Questions linger about Lebanon truce<\/p>\n
Even though mediators were optimistic, it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce that it did not play a role in negotiating and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Trump said in another post that Israel is \u201cprohibited\u201d by the U.S. from further strikes on Lebanon and that \u201cenough is enough\u201d in the Israel-Hezbollah war.<\/p>\n
The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defense.<\/p>\n
Shortly before Trump\u2019s post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon \u201cat the request of my friend President Trump,\u201d but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.<\/p>\n
He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90% of Hezbollah\u2019s missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces \u201chave not finished yet\u201d with the dismantling of the group.<\/p>\n
In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.<\/p>\n
The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.<\/p>\n
The war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.<\/p>\n
__ <\/p>\n
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Andrew Wilks in Antalya, Turkey contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway Saturday after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11154,3065,2504,1555,26431,14085,38,102,34,196,26428,49,4512,26430,1258,1403,3911,26429,22953,5306,1219,101,69,22710,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-71413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-blockade","9":"tag-ceasefire","10":"tag-control","11":"tag-country","12":"tag-critical-waterway-saturday","13":"tag-deal","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-hormuz","16":"tag-iran","17":"tag-iran-war","18":"tag-joint-military-command","19":"tag-middle-east","20":"tag-mideast","21":"tag-morning","22":"tag-nuclear","23":"tag-pentagon","24":"tag-port","25":"tag-related-video","26":"tag-restriction","27":"tag-sknd","28":"tag-strait","29":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","30":"tag-tehran","31":"tag-truce","32":"tag-u-s"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116425131397992859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}