L’Iran announced on Saturday that it was closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime route for global oil and gas trade, due to the American blockade of Iranian ports, following the announcement of its complete reopening for commercial ships.
Without an agreement, the blockade will continue, Trump predicts Friday night
The resumption of traffic in the strait was welcomed by markets and Washington. However, on Friday night, the American president declared that he would maintain the American blockade on Iranian ports if no peace agreement was reached with Tehran. He added that he might not extend the ceasefire after its expiration on Wednesday.
Iran-US: 40 days of war, one week of truce, and diplomacy at an impasse
“I may not extend it, but the blockade will continue,” he said aboard Air Force One. However, he added, “I think it will happen,” regarding the potential peace agreement. Earlier, he had stated on his Truth Social network that the blockade would remain “fully in effect” until the end of negotiations with Iran.
Tehran announces the closure of the strait
Following these statements, Tehran warned that the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes, could be closed again. Before carrying out the threat on Saturday, announcing a return to its “strict control” over the passage.
Iran had “agreed in good faith to allow the passage of a limited number of tankers and commercial vessels,” but the Americans, violating their commitment, “continue to engage in acts of piracy under the guise of the so-called blockade,” denounced the Iranian armed forces’ command Khatam Al-Anbiya in a statement broadcast on state television. “For this reason, control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state, and this strategic passage is now under strict control” of Iran, they added.
“Trump says the Iranians are poor fighters but good negotiators; for me, it’s the opposite,” war in Iran as told by the writer Mohammad Tolouei.
However, Iranian airspace was partially reopened on Saturday morning, and international flights are once again permitted to fly over the east of the country, announced the Civil Aviation Organization, cited by the Tasnim news agency.
Trump says Iranian uranium will be “brought back to the United States,” Iran denies
Donald Trump also told AFP that a peace agreement was “very close” and that Iran had agreed to return its enriched uranium, a key point of the negotiations. “We will go get it, we will bring it back to the United States shortly,” he affirmed. The United States will retrieve “the nuclear dust” with the help of “a lot of excavators,” he further stated. “We will need the biggest excavators you can imagine,” he said.
This was quickly denied by Iran: “Iran’s enriched uranium will not be transferred anywhere,” said the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baghaei, quoted by state television.
Oil price drop
The announcement on Friday by Iran of the complete reopening of the strait to commercial ships during the ceasefire, as the truce between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon takes effect, raised a cautious hope for peace in the Middle East. It led to a drop in oil prices and a rebound in European and American stock markets, after five weeks of devastating war for the global economy.
“Thank you!” immediately exclaimed Donald Trump in a series of messages on his Truth Social platform, emphasizing that the American blockade of Iranian ports would remain “fully in effect” until the end of negotiations, and that it “will continue” if no agreement is reached at the end of the negotiations.
Lebanon says working on “a permanent agreement” with Israel
These talks continue, under Pakistan’s auspices, to organize a second round of talks between Tehran and Washington, after the first in Islamabad last weekend. It is the first time since the start of Israeli-American strikes on Iran on February 28 that the weapons have fallen silent on all fronts of the war. In Lebanon, many displaced people left on Friday to return to their homes in the south of the country or the southern suburbs of Beirut, strongholds of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement, ignoring warnings from the Israeli government.
Forced into a ceasefire, secretly, Netanyahu rushes into Lebanon
Lebanon is now working on “a permanent agreement” with Israel, according to its president Joseph Aoun, who promised to “safeguard the rights” of the people and not to “cede an inch of national territory” in the discussions.
A fragile ceasefire
Until the last moments before the ceasefire went into effect, strikes occurred on both sides. At least 13 people were killed, 35 injured, and 15 reported missing after Israeli bombings on Tyre, according to the municipality.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel had not “yet finished” the work to disarm Hezbollah. The Israeli army remains present in Lebanon in a ten-kilometer-deep strip from the border. However, Donald Trump, who brokered this ten-day ceasefire, raised the tone towards his ally: “Israel will no longer bomb Lebanon. They are FORBIDDEN to do so on behalf of the United States. That’s enough!!!” he insisted. However, the Lebanese national news agency reported one death in an Israeli airstrike in the south of the country. Israel did not immediately respond.
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The Hezbollah, who attacked Israel in early March in retaliation for the Israeli-American attack on Iran, warned that its fighters kept their “finger on the trigger” and distrusted “the treachery of the enemy.”
