The United States Naval blockade begins in the Strait of Hormuz after the deadline of 7 pm (10 am ET). A blockade was imposed on all the ships entering or leaving Iranian ports.
After the deadline, Trump warned on the Truth Social platform about the blockade.
” If any of these ships come anywhere close to our blockade, they will be immediately eliminated,” he wrote.
“Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, “fast attack ships,” because we did not consider them much of a threat. Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our blocked, they will be immediately eliminated, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea. It is quick and brutal. P.S. 98.2% of Drugs coming into the US by ocean or sea have stopped!” he said.
On Monday, he said that he had been contacted by the right and appropriate people in Iran, and they want to work out a deal.
“We’ve been called this morning by the right people, the appropriate people, and they want to work a deal,” said Trump during a news conference.
However, he reiterated that the United States would not agree to any deal unless Iran abandoned its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Trump said the “blockade” of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from Iranian ports had begun.
“Right now there’s no fighting. Right now we have a blockade,” he added.
He said Iran is doing “absolutely no business.”
“And we’re going to keep it that way very easily,” he said.
Meanwhile, the unified command of the Iranian armed forces said the ports in the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman are “either for everyone or for no one”, state broadcaster IRIB reported, according to Al Jazeera.
“The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran consider defending the legal rights of our country a natural and legal duty, and accordingly, exercising the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the territorial waters of our country is the natural right of the Iranian nation,” IRIB cited Iran’s forces as stating.
Al Jazeera reported that the forces’ statement read “Enemy-affiliated vessels” will have the right to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, while other vessels will be allowed passage, subject to regulations by Tehran.
“The criminal US’s imposition of restrictions on the movement of vessels in international waters is an illegal act and amounts to piracy.” If the security of the ports is threatened, no port in the region “will be safe”, the forces added, as per Al Jazeera.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump said he and his advisers were considering resuming limited military strikes on Iran, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The United States’ NATO allies said on Monday they would not get involved in President Donald Trump’s plan to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, further ratcheting up tensions within the increasingly fragile alliance.
NATO allies including Britain and France said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, saying instead that it was vital to open the waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil usually passes, which Iran has effectively closed since the conflict began on February 28.