(Bloomberg) — US and Iran tensions grew over the Strait of Hormuz with both sides maintaining their blockades of the critical waterway, creating an uneasy standoff with no sign of peace talks on the horizon.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the US Navy to shoot any boat putting mines in the strait, while the military said it intercepted two oil supertankers that tried to evade its effort to prevent passage to and from Iran’s ports. US forces boarded a “sanctioned stateless vessel” transporting oil from Iran in the Indian Ocean overnight, the Pentagon said.
Later, an Iranian ship carrying rice safely passed through the Sea of Oman and reached Iran after being escorted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported. It said the US Navy attempted to seize the vessel.
US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump also said Thursday that if Iran doesn’t move oil, its infrastructure will explode. He also repeated that Iran wants to make a deal, and the US has been speaking with the country.
Tehran, for its part, attacked at least three vessels on Wednesday, helping to ensure the key transit point for oil and gas flows remains effectively shut for an eighth straight week.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump wants Iran to agree to hand over its stocks of highly-enriched uranium, which the Islamic Republic has so far refused to do. The US and Israel started the conflict by bombing Iran in late February, arguing that Tehran could enrich that material further and try to build an atomic bomb.
Trump reiterated his argument that Iran isn’t pushing for peace due to infighting among its leaders, saying on social media there’s a battle ongoing between hardline and moderate factions. In the meantime, “no ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy,” he said, referring to Hormuz. “It is “Sealed up Tight,” until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!”
Hormuz has now been shut for almost two months due to the conflict, exacerbating fears about the knock-on effect on the global economy. About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies are typically shipped through Hormuz, as well as aluminum, fertilizers and other agricultural products.
“The conflict has entered a new phase centered on the Strait of Hormuz,” Bloomberg Economics analysts led by Becca Wasser said in a note. “The US blockade will likely remain in place. But it won’t be effective at achieving its strategic objective: economically squeezing Iran into capitulation. Tehran’s tolerance to pain is significant when its survival is at stake.”
Trump says that the blockade will only end once Iran agrees a deal that ends the war, which has killed thousands of people, wreaked havoc across much of the Middle East and led to a surge in fuel prices.
Brent crude rose for a fourth day to above $105 a barrel as the standoff worsened the outlook for global supplies. Stocks fell amid concern a prolonged closure of a strait will push up inflation and slow economic growth.
The White House says the blockade is choking off Iran’s oil exports. It claims Iran is losing out on $500 million each day, a figure it hasn’t provided evidence for.
“The point of this is the economic leverage that we maintain over Iran now,” Leavitt said. “And the crux of that is this naval blockade. We are strangling their main source of revenue.”
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that Iran welcomes talks, but that the “blockade and threats are main obstacles to genuine negotiations.”
Some Iran-linked vessels appear to have passed the US line of warships in the Gulf of Oman, outside the Strait of Hormuz. At least two fully laden Iranian tankers have sailed out of the Persian Gulf this week, according to data intelligence firm Vortexa.
The US military, however, refuted the report, saying the tankers Hero II and Hedy were intercepted earlier this week and are now anchored in Chabahar, an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman. The vessel Dorena has been under the escort of a US Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean, according to a post on X.
Figures from Vortexa suggest at least 34 Iran-linked tankers have made their way through the strait and the US blockade line.
Trump’s ceasefire extension was a climb down from threats to resume the bombing of Iran in the event a deal couldn’t be reached by a Wednesday deadline. He made the move after Vice President JD Vance abandoned a plan to go to Pakistan for further talks, after it became clear Iran wouldn’t take part.
That ensured no immediate return to fighting in a war that’s seen Iran strike Israel and Gulf Arab states with thousands of drones and missiles. But Washington and Tehran still seem far apart on long-term issues related to the latter’s nuclear program and support for Middle Eastern militant groups.
Israel and Lebanon, meanwhile, are set to resume talks in Washington on Thursday. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee is expected to attend, according to a State Department official.
Israel and Hezbollah began a parallel war in March. A ceasefire announced last week runs through April 26 and has largely held despite mutual accusations of attacks. Trump is seeking a broader accord.
Any return to full-scale fighting in Lebanon would likely worsen the prospects for talks with Iran, which is the main sponsor of Hezbollah and sees the Islamist militant group as a key ally.
–With assistance from Charles Gorrivan.
(Updates with Iran claiming rice vessel arrived in paragraph 3.)
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