Cairo, Apr 18 (AP): The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz quickly escalated again Saturday as Iran reversed its reopening of the crucial waterway and fired on ships attempting to pass, in retaliation after the United States pressed ahead with its blockade choking off Iranian ports.
Confusion over the strait, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict. The ceasefire between them is due to run out by mid-next week, and Pakistani mediators were working to put together a new round of direct negotiations to keep the truce going.
Iran’s joint military command said Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state … under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
Revolutionary Guard gunboats on Saturday opened fire on a tanker transiting the strait and an unknown projectile hit a container vessel, damaging some of the containers, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said without identifying the vessels. TankerTrackers.com reported that two Indian-flagged vessels were forced to turn around after being fired on by Iran, including a supertanker carrying Iraqi oil.
The renewed escalation resulted from attempts by both sides to maintain leverage amid negotiations over an ultimate deal to end the war and address Iran’s nuclear program.
For the United States, the blockade is a key tool to keep up pressure on Iran, short of resuming bombardment. By cutting off much of Iran’s exports and imports, it could strangle an already crippled economy.
For Iran, closure of the strait — imposed after the US and Israel launched their surprise war on the country on Feb 28 — has proven to be perhaps its most powerful weapon in the confrontation, causing oil prices to spike, threatening the world economy and inflicting political pain on Trump.
Progress threatens to unravel
On Friday, Iran announced the reopening of the strait to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was sealed between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The reopening triggered a fall in oil prices. Iran’s closure of the strait since has triggered an energy crisis that has roiled the global economy.
US President Donald Trump, however, said that even with the reopening, the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the US Trump imposed the blockade, halting all shipping to and from Iranian ports as the ceasefire between Iran and the US was announced last week to keep pressure on Iran to make a deal in Pakistan-brokered talks to end almost seven weeks of war.
His comments triggered immediate outcry from Iranian officials, calling the blockade a violation that would prompt a re-closure of the strait.
“Americans are risking the international community, risking the global economy through these, I can say, miscalculations,” referring to the blockade, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the Associated Press on Saturday.
“Everybody must understand to what extent American side is risking the whole ceasefire package,” he said, speaking after a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, said that the strait was “returning to the status quo,” which he had earlier described as ships requiring Iranian naval authorization and toll payment before transiting.
A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran’s approval.
US forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, US Central Command said on X.
Pakistan pushing for progress toward new deal
The renewed standoff over the strait came hours after Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told the forum in Antalya that his country’s diplomats were working to “bridge” differences between the US and Iran.
Pakistani officials were fanning out for talks with senior players. Its army chief met senior Iranian officials in Tehran while its prime minister held talks in Antalya with Turkey’s president and Qatar’s emir. Pakistan is expected to host a second round of negotiations between Iran and the US early next week.
But Khatibzadeh said the Iranians were not ready for a new round of face-to-face talks with the US because the Americans “have not abandoned their maximalist position.”
He also said Iran will not hand over its stock of 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium to the United States, calling the idea “a non-starter.” Khatibzadeh did not address other proposals for what to do with the material, saying only, “we are ready to address any concerns.”
On Friday, Trump said the US will go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” referring to the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under nuclear sites badly damaged by US military strikes last year.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued defiant remarks on Saturday, saying Iran’s navy stands “ready to inflict bitter defeats on its enemies.”
In a message celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of Iran’s army, he hailed Iran’s drone strikes that targeted Israel and the US interests across the region during the past seven weeks of war. Khamenei has bot been seen in public since he was elevated to supreme leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in Israel’s opening barrage of the war on Feb. 28.
Questions linger about Lebanon truce
French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed and three others injured on Saturday morning during an attack on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. “Everything suggests that responsibility for this attack lies with Hezbollah,” Macron wrote on social media.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
This week’s declaration of a ceasefire in Lebanon was seen as a boost to efforts for an Iran agreement. Pakistani Foreign Minister Dar said fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had been a key sticking point in U.S.-Iran talks last weekend in Islamabad.
Still, it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce it did not play a role in negotiating, especially when it leaves Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.
In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.
The war, which began with US 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 US service members have also been killed. (PTI)
