The United States military will begin a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports and coastal areas this Monday (13), after weekend negotiations failed to reach an agreement to end the war with Iran, putting a fragile two-week ceasefire at risk.
The talks in Islamabad, which ran from Saturday (11) until early Sunday (12), were the first direct meeting between the US and Iran in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979. The talks came days after the start of a ceasefire on Tuesday, aimed at ending six weeks of fighting that has killed thousands of people across the Gulf and disrupted vital energy supplies. and raised fears of a broader regional conflict.
U.S. Central Command said the American blockade, beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday, would be “impartially enforced against vessels of all nations entering or leaving Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.”
Vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian ports will not be impeded, the U.S. Army said. Additional information will be provided to commercial browsers through a formal notice before the block begins.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that American forces would also intercept all vessels in international waters that had paid tolls to Iran.
“No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” Trump wrote on social media, adding: “Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”
He added that the US Navy will begin destroying mines that the Iranians have laid in the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point for about 20% of global energy supplies.
Although shipping data showed that three supertankers fully loaded with oil passed through the Strait on Saturday, the tankers were on Monday in anticipation of the US blockade.
Benchmark crude oil prices rose more than 7% to surpass $100 per barrel in Monday morning trading in Asia, while the dollar strengthened and U.S. stock futures fell following the lockdown announcement.
“Trump wants a quick solution,” said Dana Stroul, a former senior Pentagon official during the Biden administration and currently at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The reality is that this mission is difficult to execute alone and likely unsustainable in the medium to long term.”
Iran says ‘it has not learned any lessons’
Following Trump’s opening statements on Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that military vessels approaching the strait would be considered a violation of the ceasefire and would be dealt with strictly and firmly, highlighting the .
An American official said Iran rejected Washington’s call for an end to all uranium enrichment, the dismantling of all major enrichment facilities and the transfer of highly enriched uranium.
Iran has also refused US demands to cease funding Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, as well as to fully open the Strait of Hormuz, the official added.
Iranian media said there was agreement on several issues, but the strait and Iran’s nuclear program were the main points of contention.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran “encountered maximalism, constant changes of objectives and blockade” when it was one step away from a “memorandum of understanding with Islamabad.”
“No lessons learned,” he added. “Goodwill begets goodwill. Enmity begets enmity.”
Even if the ceasefire holds, many analysts predict it will take some time for energy flow through the Gulf to return to normal, which will mean higher fuel prices and higher inflation for the global economy.
Trump told Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing” that oil and gasoline prices could remain high until November’s midterm elections, a rare acknowledgment of the possible political consequences of the war.
Qalibaf, from Iran, posted a map of those in the Washington region on social media with the comment: “Take advantage of the current prices at gas stations. With this ‘blockade’, you will soon miss gasoline for 4 or 5 dollars.”
More negotiations
Trump said he believed Iran would continue negotiating and called the discussions in Islamabad “very friendly.”
“I believe they will be willing to negotiate, because no one can be so stupid as to say, ‘We want nuclear weapons,’ without having any tricks up their sleeve,” he said.
But a few hours later, the US president said he did not care if a “desperate” Iran returned to the negotiating table.
“If they don’t come back, that’s fine with me,” Trump told reporters on Sunday night after returning to the Washington area after spending the night in Florida.
Qalibaf blamed the US for failing to earn Tehran’s trust despite his team offering “future-oriented initiatives.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who discussed the talks in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Tehran wanted “a balanced and fair deal.”
“If the United States returns to the framework of international law, reaching an agreement will not be far away,” he told Putin, according to Iranian state media.
