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CAIRO — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the American military had begun a blockade of Iranian ports as part of his effort to force Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz and accept a deal to end the war that has raged for more than six weeks.
Iran responded with threats on all ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, taking aim at U.S.-allied countries.
At least two tankers approaching the strait Monday turned around soon after the U.S. blockade began, vessel tracker MarineTraffic said on X.
The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations agency said the blockade restricted “the entirety of the Iranian coastline, including ports and energy infrastructure.” Its notice to mariners said transit through the strait to or from non-Iranian places was not reported to be impeded, though ships “may encounter military presence.”
The U.S. blockade and Iran’s threatened retaliation set up an extraordinary showdown that poses serious risks for the global economy and raised the specter that the ceasefire could collapse and the war could resume. Talks aimed at permanently ending the conflict — which began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran — failed to reach an agreement this past weekend. There has been no word on whether negotiations will resume.
“We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world because that’s what they’re doing,” Trump said of Iran at the White House, where he announced that the blockade had started.
He suggested that the U.S. remains willing to engage with Iran.
“I can tell you that we’ve been called by the other side,” Trump said, adding that “they want to work a deal.”
Discussions between the U.S. and Iran about a second round of in-person negotiations are underway, two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the development said Monday. A diplomat from one of the mediating countries said Tehran and Washington have agreed to more talks.
All four spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations.
Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which 20% of traded oil passes in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.
Before the U.S. blockade, Tehran had allowed some ships perceived as friendly to pass while charging considerable fees, leading to accusations it is holding the global economy hostage.
Some analysts are doubtful that the United States can restore normal shipping through force alone. And it’s not clear how the blockade will work or what the dangers might be to U.S. forces.
The question is essentially who can endure the most pain: Could a blockade make Iran’s economic situation untenable and force it to concede? Or will it drive global oil and other prices so high that Trump is forced to back down?
The U.S. military’s Central Command announced that the blockade would be enforced “against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas” on the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
CENTCOM’s decision to allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the strait was a step down from Trump’s earlier threat to blockade the waterway.
In a social media message, Trump said Iran’s navy had been “completely obliterated” but still had “fast attack ships.” Trump warned that “if any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.”
THREATS OF RETALIATION
“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. An Iranian military statement said: “NO PORT in the region will be safe.”
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 100 or more vessel passages per day before the war.
The blockade is intended to pressure 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, hovered Monday just under $100 per barrel. It cost roughly $70 per barrel before the war.
Top-ranking Iranian officials threatened retaliation.
Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, dismissed the threat of a U.S. blockade as “more bluffing than reality.”
“It will make the current situation (Trump) is in more complicated and makes the market — which he is angry about — more turbulent,” he said on X.
The Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, addressed Trump in a statement: “If you fight, we will fight.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, demanded compensation from five Middle Eastern countries that Iran says violated international law by aiding the war effort against it, the Islamic Republic’s state-run media said Monday.
U.S. military officials have offered few details about how the blockade will actually work.
The U.S. Navy has 16 warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Middle East, a defense official said. A second defense official said no American warships are in the Persian Gulf, which forms most of Iran’s coastline. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
Under international law, the blockade must be impartially enforced. Legal experts will also be watching to see if the U.S. allows humanitarian aid to reach Iran.
“How it is carried out will determine whether it is lawful or not,” said Todd Huntley, a retired Navy captain and director of Georgetown University’s national security law program.
The blockade threat came after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement Saturday.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the talks stalled after Iran refused to accept American terms on refraining from developing a nuclear weapon. Vance told FOX News’ “Special Report” that some progress was made on nuclear issues, but he felt Iran’s negotiators couldn’t make a deal without approval from Tehran.
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. However, it has pushed forward with steps that could give it the ability to build a nuclear weapon, including enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels and developing long-range missiles potentially capable of delivering a bomb.
Iran’s ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, said the main sticking points for Tehran were its nuclear program, war reparations and sanctions relief.
The ceasefire expires April 22. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,089 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed.
Information for this article was contributed by Melanie Lidman, Konstantin Toropin, Collin Binkley, Ben Finley, David Klepper, Kareem Chehayeb, Sheikh Saaliq, Jill Lawless, Ghaya Ben MBarek and Russ Bynum of The Associated Press.
Haifa Kenjo, who fled Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, holds her 15-day-old daughter Shiman inside the tent she uses as a shelter and where she gave birth to her in Beirut, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)A woman checks her smartphone while walking past a police special forces car at Tajrish Square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)FILE – Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri,File)Vice President JD Vance gives a thumbs up gesture while boarding Air Force Two as he leaves Islamabad, Sunday, April 12, 2026, after attending talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
