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US President Donald Trump said his country\u2019s military have begun blockading Iranian ports in an effort to force Tehran to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz and accept Washington\u2019s terms to end the war that has been raging since 28 February.<\/p>\n
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At least two tankers approaching the Strait late on Monday turned around, according to a post on X by vessel tracker MarineTraffic, who announced the development shortly after the US Navy began its blockade.<\/p>\n
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said the blockade restricted \u201cthe entirety of the Iranian coastline, including ports and energy infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its notice to mariners said transit through the strait to or from non-Iranian places was not reported to be impeded though ships \u201cmay encounter military presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t let a country blackmail or extort the world because that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Trump said of Iran at the White House, where he announced the blockade had started.<\/p>\n
He suggested the US remains willing to engage with Iran. \u201cI can tell you that we\u2019ve been called by the other side,\u201d Trump said, adding that “they want to work a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Discussions between Washington and Iran about a second round of in-person negotiations are underway, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
A diplomat from one of the mediating countries \u2013 Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt \u2013 said Tehran and the US have agreed to more talks.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Before the US blockade, Tehran had allowed some ships perceived as friendly \u2013 flagged by countries not allied with the US or Israel \u2013 to pass, while charging considerable fees, leading to accusations it is holding the global economy hostage.<\/p>\n
Some analysts are doubtful that the United States can restore normal shipping through sheer force alone. It\u2019s not clear how the blockade will work or what the dangers might be to US forces if Trump decides to put boots on the ground to reopen the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n
Iran responded with threats on all ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, taking aim at US-allied countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is either for everyone or for NO ONE,\u201d the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported Monday. \u201cAn Iranian military statement said: \u201cNO PORT in the region will be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s blockade and Iran’s threatened retaliation set up an extraordinary showdown that posed serious risks for the global economy and raised the spectre that the ceasefire could collapse and the fighting could resume.<\/p>\n
The US president late on Monday again reiterated claims that the US military had \u201cobliterated\u201d Iran\u2019s Navy, noting that 158 ships were completely destroyed and are \u201claying at the bottom of the sea\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, \u201cfast attack ships,\u201d because we did not consider them much of a threat. Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ongoing two-week ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran was meant to reopen the strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic in an effort to bring global crude prices down, after it had soared to well above $100 (\u20ac85) a barrel for weeks.<\/p>\n
As shipping remains limited, and with the introduction of the US blockade now, Brent crude, the international standard, has been slowly rising from its six-week low of $91 (\u20ac77) a barrel on 8 April, trading at just over $98 (\u20ac83) on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump said his country\u2019s military have begun blockading Iranian ports in an effort to force…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17677,3388,34,197,10,11,67,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-25834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-donald-trump","8":"tag-blockade","9":"tag-crude-oil","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iran-war","12":"tag-potus","13":"tag-president-of-the-united-states","14":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","15":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116401491428257028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}