- The Pentagon says US forces boarded a tanker carrying Iranian oil.
- He declares that he will continue the maritime fight against illicit networks.
- The ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by the blockade: Ghalibaf.
TEHRAN: President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the U.S. Navy to destroy any Iranian boats caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, putting more pressure on a fraying ceasefire as disruption from the Gulf standoff has battered the global economy.
Trump’s announcement came after the U.S. fleet boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean carrying oil from Iran and after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had reaped the first profits from tolls it demanded for transport across the strait.
With plans to resume peace talks in Pakistan hanging in the balance, more fuel-guzzling airlines canceled flights, oil prices climbed again and the closely watched S&P Global PMI showed euro zone business activity declined for the first time in 16 months.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, no matter how small, … that lays mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said.
Iran has promised it will keep the strait closed to all but a small number of authorized ships as long as the U.S. Navy blockades its ports, ignoring Trump’s demands to reopen Hormuz and return its enriched uranium.
The United States responded to Iran’s action by imposing its own blockade of Iranian ports, and on Thursday the Pentagon announced on social media that U.S. forces had “conducted a maritime interdiction and boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel, the M/T Majestic X, carrying oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean.”
The message included images of U.S. service members rappelling from helicopters onto the deck of a large oil tanker.
The statement said the United States “will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate.”
“Not possible”
While strikes in the region have mostly ceased since the start of the two-week truce, the confrontation over Hormuz has not stopped, with both sides seeking economic leverage – only for Trump to announce an indefinite ceasefire to create space for further negotiations.
“A complete ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by a naval blockade,” said Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Tehran’s delegation in a first round of talks in Pakistan.
“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is not possible in the context of a blatant violation of the ceasefire.”
Ghalibaf’s deputy, Hamidreza Hajibabaei, said Iran was receiving its first revenue from the tolls it imposes on ships seeking to pass through Hormuz, a route that in peacetime accounts for a fifth of global flows of oil and gas, as well as other vital commodities.
Analysts say Tehran, and particularly its hardline leaders associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), believe Iran’s blockade gives it enough economic leverage to force Washington to abandon its key demands in peace talks.
And some, like Danny Citrinowicz of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, have criticized Israel and the United States for misinterpreting the Iranian government’s position.
“Tehran has always demonstrated its willingness to absorb economic difficulties while remaining firm on what it considers to be core national interests. There is little reason to believe that this time will be different,” he said in a social media post.
“Rather than moving toward concessions, Iran is positioning itself for escalation.”
A brief from the Soufan Center think tank says Iranian hardliners “argue that a prolonged rise in global energy prices and a growing global shortage of certain goods will increasingly pressure Trump to adhere to Iran’s positions, end the war, and ultimately withdraw U.S. forces from the region.”
“Trump and his team are calculating the opposite: that the U.S. blockade of Iranian maritime trade, which carries all of its oil exports, will quickly cripple the Iranian economy and force Iran to agree to U.S. demands.”
Peace talks
On Wednesday, Trump told the New York Post that negotiations could resume in Pakistan within two to three days, even though Iran has not confirmed its participation and Vice President JD Vance suspended his trip to Islamabad on Tuesday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they had forced two ships to reach Iranian shores from the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military’s Central Command said before Thursday’s announcement that its forces blocking Iranian ports had so far “ordered 31 ships to turn around or return to port.”
After reaching a ceasefire with Iran, the United States helped broker a truce between Israel and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.
Despite the declared truce, Israeli strikes killed five more people on Wednesday, Lebanese media reported.
Israel and Lebanon will hold a second round of talks in Washington on Thursday, during which Beirut will request a one-month extension of the ceasefire, according to a Lebanese official.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 2,450 people since the start of the war, according to Lebanese authorities.
