The US Navy blockade of all Iranian ports has come into effect as part of efforts to force Tehran into agreeing to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz and accepting a peace deal.
The US military’s Central Command announced that from 10am EDT on Monday (midnight Tuesday AEST) the blockade would be enforced “against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas”, including all of Iran’s ports on the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
Iran responded with threats on all ports in the two gulfs, taking aim at US-allied countries.
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It sets the stage for an extraordinary showdown that contains serious risks for the global economy and raises the spectre that a ceasefire that is currently holding could collapse and the war could resume.
Trump posted on Truth Social shortly after the blockade kicked in warning that if any Iranian “fast attack ships” approached the blockade they would be “immediately ELIMINATED”.
On Sunday, following the collapse of lengthy US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan, Trump had declared the US Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade to stop ships from entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz in a stunning counterattack threat against Iran, warning any Iranian that tried to stop it would be “blown to hell”.
The president has ramped up his efforts to obtain control over the critical oil chokepoint, which was a key pillar of the peace negotiations in Islamabad
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump announced on Truth Social.
“At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, ‘There may be a mine out there somewhere’, that nobody knows about but them.”
US Central Command said it would still allow ships travelling between non-Iranian ports to transit the Strait of Hormuz, but details on how this would be orchestrated are yet to be shared.
“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,” CENTCOM said in an X post.
The president said he instructed the US Navy to interdict any ship in international waters that had paid an “illegal” toll to Iran.
“No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” he added.
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Iran responded with 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.
“NO PORT in the region will be safe,” read a statement from the Iranian military and the Revolutionary Guard.
Trump has claimed “other countries” will be involved in the blockade and that the US military was “locked and loaded” to resume attacks against Iran.
“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia had not been asked to join the US blockade.
“We haven’t been asked to participate. We’ve received no requests that we haven’t agreed to,” he told Today this morning.
He described the Trump administration as carrying out its blockade in a “unilateral way”.
Trump has also claimed the US had completely destroyed sea mines in the strait.
“Our Military will finish up the little that is left of Iran!” he wrote on Truth Social.
He again urged Iran to open the Strait before the looming deadline.
“As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this INTERNATIONAL WATERWAY OPEN AND FAST!” he added.
Questions linger over whether this maritime war strategy will achieve Trump’s objective of reopening the Strait to commercial vessels.
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 more than 40 commercial ships have crossed since the start of the ceasefire last week, down from roughly 100 to 135 vessel passages per day before the war.
The blockade is likely intended to pile pressure on 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, rose 7 per cent to hover around $US102 ($145) per barrel on Monday. It cost roughly $US70 per barrel before the war.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, a ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN he did not “understand how blockading the Strait is going to somehow push the Iranians into opening it”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that any warship approaching the Strait would be regarded as a breach of the ceasefire agreement and would be responded to “harshly and decisively”.
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https://x.com/mb_ghalibaf/status/2043425869570416802
Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said any US blockade would only push oil prices higher.
“Enjoy the current pump figures,” he said in a post on X, noting the current fuel prices in the US.
“With the so-called ‘blockade’, soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.”
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