Iran Reopens Strait Of Hormuz, But Threatens To Close It Again As The US Maintains Its Blockade

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran says it has fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial ships, but questions lingered Saturday about how much freedom ships should have to pass through the waterway as Tehran maintained control over who passes and threatened to close it again if the United States keeps it in place. Blockade of Iranian ships and ports.

Iran’s statement on Friday regarding the opening of the important water resource through which 20 percent of the world’s oil is transported was as follows: 10 day ceasefire Between Israel and Iran-backed countries Hezbollah militant group It appeared to be holding on in Lebanon.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that ships in the X channel will use routes determined by the Islamic Republic in coordination with Iranian officials, suggesting that Iran plans to maintain some control over the channel. It was unclear whether ships would have to pay tolls.

Data firm Kpler said movement in the strait was limited to corridors that required Iran’s approval.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said: American blockade “It will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches an agreement with the US nuclear program.

Trump initially celebrated Iran’s announcement, sharing on social media that the strait was “fully open and ready for full passage.” But minutes later, he published another post stating that the US Navy’s blockade would continue “UNTIL OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE.”

Iranian officials say blockade is a violation last week’s ceasefire agreement Between Iran and the USA Iranian parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf said in his post early on Saturday that the strait “will not remain open” if the blockade continues.

US forces have returned 21 ships to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, US Central Command said in a statement at X.

Embers enforced the blockade As part of an effort to force Iran to open the strait and accept the deal ceasefire brokered by Pakistan with ending almost seven weeks of war Tension between Israel, USA and Iran.

While the fate of the two-week ceasefire reached last week remains unclear, the president’s decision to maintain the blockade despite Iran’s statement appeared to be aimed at maintaining pressure on Tehran.

Direct talks between the United States and Iran last weekend failed as the two countries could not agree on Iran’s nuclear program and other issues.

Trump suggested that the second round of talks could be held this weekend.

“Iranians want to meet,” he said in a brief phone interview with news outlet Axios. “They want to make a deal. I think there will probably be a meeting over the weekend.”

Oil prices dropped It took place on Friday in hopes that the United States and Iran were moving closer to a deal. The head of the International Energy Agency warned energy crisis if it could get worse throat It did not reopen.

Two Iranian semi-official news agencies appeared to dispute Araghchi’s statement about the strait.

Fars news agency, considered close to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, published a series of posts about X criticizing the lack of clarity regarding the decision to reopen the waterway and the “strange silence of the Supreme National Security Council and the negotiating team.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has recently acted as the country’s de facto top decision-making body, amid doubts over the status of new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly injured early in the war.

Mehr news agency also said the decision to reopen the strait “needs to be clarified” and requires the approval of the religious leader.

ceasefire in Lebanon can remove a major obstacle Ending the agreement between Iran, the USA and Israel war. But it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would comply with an agreement that played no role in the negotiations and would see Israeli troops occupy part of southern Lebanon.

In another post, Trump said Israel was “prohibited” from further attacks on Lebanon by the United States and said “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The State Department said the ban only applies to offensive attacks, not actions in self-defense.

Shortly before Trump’s post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump” but that the campaign against Hezbollah was not yet completed.

He claimed that Israel had destroyed nearly 90% of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket stockpile, adding that Israeli forces were “not yet finished” with dismantling the group.

Celebratory gunshots were heard at the beginning of the ceasefire in Beirut. Displaced families started We are heading towards Southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, despite warnings from authorities not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would continue.

The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire came into effect.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said on Friday that an Israeli attack in the Kounine region crashed into a car and a motorcycle, killing one person and wounding three people, including a Syrian citizen. This was the first airstrike and first death reported since the ceasefire came into force.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli army or Hezbollah.

An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who had previously accused Israel of breaking last week’s ceasefire by attacking Lebanon. Israel had said that the agreement did not cover Lebanon.

The conflict has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US soldiers were also killed.

Israel’s hard-line Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue to hold all locations where it is currently stationed, including a buffer zone stretching 10 kilometers (6 miles) into southern Lebanon. He said many houses in the area would be demolished and the Lebanese would not return.

Hezbollah said the Lebanese people had the “right to resist” the Israeli occupation and that its actions “will be determined by the course of developments.”

Israel and Hezbollah have participated in many wars and have been fighting intermittently since the war began. Israel-Hamas war In Gaza. Israel and Lebanon reached an agreement in November 2024 to end previous hostilities, but Israel has continued almost daily attacks in what it says are an effort to prevent the Iran-backed militant group from regrouping. This escalated into another invasion after Hezbollah began firing missiles at Israel again in response to its war against Iran.

Mediators in the Iran war are pressing for compromise on three main points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for wartime damages, according to a regional official involved in mediation efforts.

Trump claimed Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over its enriched uranium.

“The United States will take all the nuclear powder,” Trump said in his speech in Arizona. “We will achieve this by entering Iran with a large number of excavators.”

Nuclear dust is Trump’s frequently used shorthand for highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried beneath nuclear sites the United States bombed during last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran.

If true, this would be a major concession from Iran and would meet a key U.S. demand to end the conflict. Neither Iran nor the countries mediating the conflict said Tehran had made such a deal.

Trump said no money would change hands to end the war.

Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Ben Finley in Washington, Samy Magdy and Amir Rajdy in Cairo, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Abby Sewell in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.