3
Iran’s military reimposed restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, shutting down the world’s most important oil artery, just hours after Trump said free passage for commercial shipping through the strategic waterway would not be enough to lift the U.S. Navy’s crushing blockade of Iranian ports.
Tehran’s rapid lifting of the blockade on this critical artery has dashed hopes for de-escalation in a seven-week-old conflict that has roiled global energy markets.
In a statement, Iran’s Joint Military Command confirmed that “control of the Strait of Hormuz is back to its previous state” and placed the transit point under the “strict management and control of the Strait of Hormuz.” [Iranian] armed forces.”
The Iranian military warned that it would continue to throttle global shipping through the 21-mile-wide bottleneck as long as U.S. forces maintained a stranglehold on Iranian ports.
Trump: Temporary easing of restrictions in Hormuz is not enough for a ceasefire
Iran’s decision to effectively block the Strait of Hormuz again followed comments by U.S. President Donald Trump at a conference in which he dismissed Tehran’s temporary easing of shipping restrictions in the waterway as “inadequate.”
Trump declared that the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Iran agrees to a comprehensive new deal on its ballistic missile arsenal and nuclear program; Concessions that Tehran rejected during negotiations in Islamabad.
For global markets, the renewed closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz is a worst-case scenario, with about a fifth of all global oil consumption flowing through the strategic artery.
Analysts say Tehran’s decision to return to a hardline stance suggests Iran sees the strait not as a bargaining chip to be traded piecemeal, but as its only effective lever against Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign as negotiations begin in Islamabad after a fragile two-week ceasefire nears completion.
Tehran is signaling that there is no “middle ground.”
“Tehran is signaling that there is no middle ground,” said Helima Croft, head of global commodities strategy at RBC Capital Markets. “By reimposing control, they are challenging the White House to either negotiate the blockade or face permanent disruption to the global energy supply chain,” she added.
The U.S.-Iran standoff has created a volatile “blockade-by-blockade” dynamic focused on global commercial shipping.
While the U.S. Navy has successfully limited Iran’s ability to export its own crude oil, by restricting the strait, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is signaling that it can still project enough energy to make the Persian Gulf impassable, cutting off the flow of oil to global markets.
The closure of Hormuz triggers an impasse in the ceasefire between Iran and the US
Iran’s announcement that it will close the Strait of Hormuz complicates ongoing indirect talks brokered by regional partners. Just a few days ago, analysts predicted that the “ship truce” could serve as a confidence-building measure for a longer cessation of hostilities in the Middle East. Instead, the rhetoric from both US President Trump and the Iranian military has intensified.
In Tehran, officials close to the Supreme Leader are said to have suggested that reopening the strait without a reciprocal lifting of Iran’s port sanctions would be viewed internally as a strategic capitulation.
In Washington, however, the Trump administration appeared to be banking on the idea that Iran’s economy would collapse before global oil prices caused significant political damage in the United States.
On Saturday afternoon, Brent crude futures rose 4%, reflecting traders’ concerns about a drawn-out shutdown that currently has no clear diplomatic exit ramp as both Iran and the U.S. spar over common points agreed upon in negotiations.
The According to Iranian sources, the US and Iranian delegations will hold the next round of talks on Monday.
Trump is already warning that a ceasefire may not be possible if negotiations with Iran fail and that the US would resort to securing Tehran’s nuclear material “in a much more unfriendly form” if a peaceful handover is not agreed.
Trump also reiterated that Iran would no longer be allowed to collect tolls on the Hormuz waterway.
Previously, Trump had made contradictory claims, saying Iran had “agreed to everything” during the talks, including removing its enriched uranium and handing it over to the US, while laying out the potential deal with Iran in an interview with CBS.
“The U.S. is going to get all the nuclear dust. Do you know what the nuclear dust is? That was the white, powdery substance produced by our B2 bombers… We were going to take it anyway,” he said, adding, “but it’s a little more dangerous to take it like that.”
Senior officials in Tehran called Trump’s claims “non-starters” and “alternative facts” and denied that Iran had agreed to the delivery of its stockpile of enriched uranium.
The head of the Iranian negotiating delegation and Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that US President Trump “made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false. They did not win the war with these lies, and they certainly will not make any progress in the negotiations.”
He also made comments on the closure of Hormuz, saying the continuation of the blockade meant the strait would not remain open.
“Transit through the strait will be on the established route and with Iranian approval. Whether the strait is open or closed and what regulations govern it will be determined by facts on the ground and not social media,” Ghalibaf explained.
As restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz have been reimposed, Iran has opened its eastern airspace to flights after a temporary closure, Iranian broadcaster IRIB reported, citing a Civil Aviation Authority spokesman.
Disclaimer: This report is based on information provided by the agency. TSG has not independently verified the information with relevant sources.
