Iran warns it will close Hormuz strait if US blockade continues
Iran will shut the strait of Hormuz if the US blockade continues, Iran’s parliamentary speaker has warned.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also said passage through the waterway would depend on authorisation from Iran, while swiping at Donald Trump in the series of posts on X.
Ghalibaf said (in a translation):
1 – The President of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false.
2 – They did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either.”
Ghalibaf, who last weekend co-led the Iranian side in negotiations with the US in Islamabad that failed to reach an agreement, continued in his posts:
3 – With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open.
4 – Passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be conducted based on the “designated route” and with “Iranian authorization”.
Whether the strait was open or closed and the regulations governing it “will be determined by the field, not by social media”, Ghalibaf added.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi announced earlier that commercial shipping though the strait was now “completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire”, prompting Trump to welcome to move but also emphasise that the US naval blockade of Iran would remain in place until the conflict was fully concluded.
Trump also said Iran had agreed to never close the strait again, but that has not been verified.
Key events
Australia’s prime minister has welcomed Iran’s announcement of reopening the strait of Hormuz but says the situation remains “fragile”.
Anthony Albanese said on Saturday after taking part in a virtual summit of about 50 countries on the issue:
This was positive news that we received last night. We hope that it holds, but what we know is that the impact will be long lasting.”
Turning now to Gaza, the UN children’s agency says it is “outraged” after two truck drivers it contracted to deliver clean water to families in the Strip were killed by Israeli fire.
Unicef said in a statement that the incident occurred during routine water trucking on Friday morning at the Mansoura water filling point in northern Gaza, which supplies Gaza City. Two others were injured in the attack.
Unicef said it had suspended activities at the site and called on Israeli authorities to investigate, stressing that humanitarian workers, civilians and vital water infrastructure must be protected under international humanitarian law.
Israel’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
US extends waiver allowing countries to buy Russian oil
Donald Trump’s administration has issued a waiver permitting countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products at sea for about a month, seeking to control global energy prices that have shot higher during the war on Iran.
The US Treasury department allowed purchases of the oil loaded on vessels as of Friday until 16 May, an extension of an original 30-day waiver that expired on 11 April, according to a document posted to the department’s website.
The extension comes two days after Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would not be renewing the waiver that allowed countries to purchase Russian oil without facing US sanctions, Reuters reports.
Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev had said the first waiver would free 100m barrels of Russian crude, equal to almost a day’s worth of global output.
The reprieve on sanctions could temporarily boost world supplies of oil but has not prevented petroleum prices from spiking due to the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz.
UK to make ‘wide-ranging’ contribution to Hormuz mission, says envoy
Britain will make “a wide-ranging military contribution” to an international mission to protect shipping in the strait of Hormuz trade waterway, the UK ambassador to the US has said.
Christian Turner’s commitment comes amid long-running concerns over the state of Britain’s armed forces and warnings of under-funding, PA Media reports.
The multinational mission, led by the UK and France, aimed to provide reassurance to vessels using the critical waterway once the Iran conflict was over, Turner told an event in Washington.
The initiative was announced at talks in Paris involving nearly 50 countries, which Turner said signalled global resolve to prevent tolls or restrictions being imposed on the shipping route, normally used to move one fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies.
So far about 12 nations have committed to take part in the mission.
The move has been derided by Donald Trump, who used it as a fresh opportunity to criticise Nato as “useless” after it refused to support his offensive against Iran.
World leaders welcomed Iran’s announcement it was reopening the Hormuz strait, which it made before later warning it would close the waterway if the US blockade of Iranian ports and ships continued.
British prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron welcomed the reopening but said it must become permanent.
Macron, who with Starmer on Friday night was co-chairing a virtual summit of about 50 countries on reopening the strait and supporting the fragile ceasefire, said the move “goes in the right direction”.
We all oppose any restrictions or system of agreements that would, in effect, amount to an attempt to privatize the strait – and, of course, any toll system.”
Finnish president Alexander Stubb said:
Finland stands ready to work on a solution that brings stability to the region and respects international law.”
Turkish vice-president Cevdet Yılmaz called the reopening “an important step towards deescalation of tension”.
Preventing similar crises, conflicts, and developments that disrupt maritime transport in our region is only possible through dialogue, restraint and strengthening multilateral cooperation.”
As reported earlier, UN chief António Guterres called the reopening “a step in the right direction”.
The UN position remains clear: we need the full restoration of international navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz, respected by everyone.”
Iran warns it will close Hormuz strait if US blockade continues
Iran will shut the strait of Hormuz if the US blockade continues, Iran’s parliamentary speaker has warned.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also said passage through the waterway would depend on authorisation from Iran, while swiping at Donald Trump in the series of posts on X.
Ghalibaf said (in a translation):
1 – The President of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false.
2 – They did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either.”
Ghalibaf, who last weekend co-led the Iranian side in negotiations with the US in Islamabad that failed to reach an agreement, continued in his posts:
3 – With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open.
4 – Passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be conducted based on the “designated route” and with “Iranian authorization”.
Whether the strait was open or closed and the regulations governing it “will be determined by the field, not by social media”, Ghalibaf added.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi announced earlier that commercial shipping though the strait was now “completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire”, prompting Trump to welcome to move but also emphasise that the US naval blockade of Iran would remain in place until the conflict was fully concluded.
Trump also said Iran had agreed to never close the strait again, but that has not been verified.
US president Donald Trump said no money will change hands as part of a deal being negotiated to end the war in Iran.
He also said Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, Reuters reports.
A cruise ship successfully transited the strait of Hormuz today, making it the first passenger vessel to make it through since the war began, according to ship tracking service MarineTraffic.
The Malta-flagged vessel, the Celestyal Discovery, had reportedly been stuck in Dubai for 47 days after arriving there in early March.
“According to MarineTraffic data, the ship crossed the strait of Hormuz at UTC today and is currently heading toward Muscat, Oman, with an estimated arrival on 18 April,” the tracking service wrote on X.
It added that reports indicate the vessel is sailing without passengers.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, has again entered the waters of the Middle East, defense officials told the Associated Press.
The Ford, which until recently was operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, transited the Suez Canal along with two destroyers and is now operating in the Red Sea, according to the AP.
The Ford is returning to the Red Sea after more than a month in the Mediterranean following a major fire in a laundry space that forced the ship back to port for repairs and left 600 sailors without places to sleep. This week marks the longest that a carrier has been deployed since the Vietnam war.
Robert Tait
It lacked the triumphalist symbolism of George W Bush’s memorable – and subsequently ill-fated – appearance before the “mission accomplished” banner aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln six weeks after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
But there was no mistaking the boastful claims asserted on Friday by Donald Trump after a military assault on neighbouring Iran that has, so far, lasted a similar period and which, by widespread agreement outside the Trump administration, has not gone to plan.
Ahead of resumed peace talks in Islamabad and in a frenetic flurry of posts on his Truth Social network, the president all-but proclaimed unambiguous victory, insisting all the major sticking points had been ironed out in advance.
“A great and brilliant day for the world,” Trump declared in his trademark block-capital letters.
Read more:
Here are a few photos of people displaced by fighting between Hezbollah and Israel returning to their villages in Lebanon following a ceasefire that went into effect Friday.
The US Department of Energy said on Friday it had loaned 26.03 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to nine oil companies, the third allotment under the Trump administration’s effort to curb fuel prices that have surged since the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Companies that have been awarded SPR loans include BP Products North America, ExxonMobil Oil Corp and Marathon Petroleum, the DOE said in a statement.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Friday for joint efforts for an effective mission to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz and said Kyiv’s wartime experience in the Black Sea could help.
“Decisions made regarding Hormuz now will determine how other aggressive actors perceive the possibility of creating problems in other straits and on other fronts,” Zelenskyy said in remarks to a video conference attended by 50 countries and chaired by France and Britain.
“We need to be as specific and clear as possible so that in six months we don’t find ourselves in the same situation as in Gaza, where much still needs to be done.” He added: “In Hormuz, there are security challenges that cannot be addressed by political decisions alone.”
Zelenskyy said that in the course of four years of war with Russia, Ukraine had “already carried out a very similar mission in the Black Sea”.
“Russia also attempted to blockade our sea and we have experience in escorting merchant vessels, demining, defending against air attacks and the overall coordination of such operations,” he said.
Ukraine, he said, had sent specialists throughout the Middle East to help countries benefit from its experience in defending against Russian drones, many designed in Iran.
“We can also contribute to maritime security,” he said. Ukraine has clinched security cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and says it is in talks with Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.
The commander of the Iranian navy, Shahram Irani, said Friday that Trump “has blockaded his friends” and not Iran, as the US said its blockade will remain in place after Iran declared the strait of Hormuz open to commercial traffic.
In a statement carried by Mizan, Iran’s official judiciary news agency, the navy chief said Trump’s blockade is just “empty words” and that no one is listening to him.
United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres on Friday welcomed the opening of the strait of Hormuz by Iran and said it was “a step in the right direction.”
In a statement, he said: “We need the full restoration of international navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz to be respected by all parties.”
The statement adds that Guterres hopes that “together with the ceasefire, this measure will contribute to creating confidence between the parties and strengthen the ongoing dialogue facilitated by Pakistan”.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said a ceasefire agreed to by his country should be transformed into “permanent agreements,” without saying whether he was referring to a prospective peace deal with Israel.
“Now, we all stand before a new phase: the transition from working towards a ceasefire to working towards permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land, and the sovereignty of our nation,” he said.
Hezbollah has said it opposes direct talks with Israel and its lawmakers on Friday criticised the government for agreeing to hold such negotiations.
Without mentioning Israel, Aoun said: “These negotiations are not a sign of weakness, nor a retreat, nor a concession.”
