Trump Says He’s Still Blockading Iran After It Says It’s Opening Strait
After Iran’s foreign minister announced that the Strait of Hormuz is “completely open” for the remaining duration of the ceasefire, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. is still maintaining its naval blockade on Iranian ships in the region.
Iran said that it is reopening the strait in response to the temporary ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday.
“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, in a post on X on Friday.
In a post shortly after, Trump said that the U.S. is still maintaining its blockade on the region. He appeared to suggest that it will remain in place until the war reaches a more permanent end.
“THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” wrote Trump in a post on Truth Social. He added, as he has said many times amid the war, that there will be a deal to end the war soon.
Araghchi’s announcement caused oil prices to drop by 13 percent, though they still remained above their pre-war prices.
Iranian and Pakistani officials have said Lebanon was supposed to be included in the ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran that began on April 8, but Israel continued bombing Lebanon anyway, claiming that it wasn’t part of the deal. In response, Iranian officials continued barring most traffic from flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, saying that they would not lift their blockade if the tenets of the deal were not being adhered to.
Seemingly as retaliation for that, Trump announced after negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan, concluded without a deal on Sunday that the U.S. would be implementing its own blockade. He said that Iran’s closure of the strait is “WORLD EXTORTION” and said that the U.S. would be doing its own blockade. He concluded that announcement with another threat to “finish up the little that is left of Iran” if a deal to extend the ceasefire isn’t reached.
Iran has still been seeking a ceasefire for the entire region, “from Lebanon to the Red Sea,” amid the latest round of negotiations, Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Friday. This is a “red line” for the Iranian government, he said, adding that “we are not accepting any temporary ceasefire.”
Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday: “Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A.” It’s unclear if this was the result of talks with Israel, or if it was Trump’s usual pontification on social media.
Iranian officials have criticized the U.S. for taking escalatory measures during the ceasefire, which expires next Wednesday.
“In intensive talks at highest level in 47 years, Iran engaged with U.S in good faith to end war,” said Araghchi after Trump announced the U.S. blockade on Sunday. “But when just inches away from ‘Islamabad MoU’, we encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade. Zero lessons earned. Good will begets good will. Enmity begets enmity.”
Iran Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has also criticized the U.S.’s threats of economic pain for Iran this week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a White House press briefing this week that the U.S. will be inflicting the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign if a deal isn’t struck by the deadline next week — on top of the U.S.’s vast, decades-old sanctions campaign against Iran.
“It is utterly abominable how policies that deliberately inflict pain and suffering on innocent people are presented with smug self-righteousness,” said Baqaei in response to Bessent’s threat. “These are nothing short of economic terrorism and state-sponsored extortion.”
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