President Donald Trump said Sunday the U.S. Navy will start blockading ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz after negotiations between the U.S. and Iran failed to produce a deal to end the war.
“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” Trump said on Truth Social. “No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.”
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Other countries will be involved with the blockade, Trump said, though he did not specify which ones.
Following Trump’s announcement, U.S. Central Command said forces are set to begin implementing a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports at 10 a.m. ET Monday.
“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” the command said. “CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”
The Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows, has been effectively closed since the war with Iran began with U.S. and Israeli strikes against the country in late February.
U.S. forces will destroy any mines Iran laid in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump also said Sunday.
“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!” he wrote.
Iran’s response
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that any military vessels that approach the strait will be seen as a breach of the current ceasefire agreement in place between the U.S. and Iran, Reuters reported.
Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, according to state media, said Trump’s blockade threats would not affect Iran.
“If you fight, we will fight, and if you come forward with logic, we will deal with logic,” he reportedly said.
US, Iran talks end with no agreement
The U.S. and Iran’s inability to come to a peace agreement came after 21 hours of negotiations over the weekend.
Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. delegation had “a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians” during the talks, which took place in Pakistan.
Still, “we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement,” Vance said.
“We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on, and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on,” he said. “We’ve made that as clear as we possibly could, and they have chosen not to accept our terms.”
Asked by a reporter what the Iranian side rejected, Vance said the U.S. needs to see “an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.”
“That is the core goal of the President of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations,” Vance said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said while the two parties “reached an understanding on a number of issues,” there were still “differences of opinion” on a couple of important matters.
“These negotiations were held after 40 days of imposed war and were held in an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion. It is natural that we should not have expected from the beginning to reach an agreement within one meeting,” he said, according to Iranian state media.
