The US Central Command has said that the United States forces would begin implementing the blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports at 10 am ET (7.30 PM IST) on 13 April.
It would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the ,” a CENTCOM statement on X said.
US forces would not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports, and additional information would be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade, it said.
The announcement comes hours after President Donald Trump announced the blockade and claimed that other countries will also be involved in enforcing it escalating tensions with Iran after talks failed to resolve disputes over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
President Trump claimed that Iran did agree to the most crucial part of negotiations, which was to give up its nuclear ambitions, Trump said that Iran has laid out mines in the Strait of Hormuz and is “extorting” countries through it.
US forces would not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports, and additional information would be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade, the CENTCOM statement said.
Trump said in a post on social media the U.S. would take action against every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran, and begin destroying mines that he said the Iranians had dropped in the Strait, a choke point for about 20% of global energy supplies that Iran has blocked.
“No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” Trump wrote, adding: “Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded to Trump by warning that military vessels approaching the Strait will be considered a ceasefire breach and dealt with harshly and decisively, underlining the risk of a dangerous escalation.
Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who led his country’s delegation to the talks along with Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, said Trump’s new threats would have no effect on Iran.
“If you fight, we will fight, and if you come forward with logic, we will deal with logic,” he said in comments carried by state media.
The weekend talks in Islamabad, which followed the announcement of a ceasefire on Tuesday, were the first direct U.S.-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
