US starts blockage in Strait of Hormuz

The United States has begun blocking ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz in an effort to ramp up pressure on Iran to reopen the vital oil corridor following the collapse of peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend.

Trump said on Sunday that the US blockade would begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (5 p.m. Makkah time) and would apply to “all ships attempting to enter or exit the Strait of Hormuz.”

However, US Central Command (CENTCOM) later stated that US forces “will not impede the freedom of navigation for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”

Although CENTCOM sought to downplay the president’s threat, the blockade of Iranian ports effectively means a complete halt to shipping traffic in the strait.

While Tehran imposes a navigation ban on ships not belonging to it or its closest allies, the US Navy has allowed Iranian ships carrying oil to pass through to bolster the supply-starved market, and the escalation means that shipping traffic will come to a complete halt in the vital waterway.

"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,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

“Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.”