Iran said it would target all ports inside and around the Persian Gulf if its own terminals were threatened, raising tensions around the Strait of Hormuz after the United States announced plans to block vessels linked to Tehran.
The security of the region’s ports is “either for everyone or for nobody,” the Iranian Armed Forces said in a statement on Monday, according to state television IRIB. The U.S. threat to block the strait would be “an act of piracy,” the text stated, adding that the country intends to maintain permanent control over the strategic maritime route even after the war ends.
The statements escalate the confrontation around the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s main energy export corridors, through which about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas passes. Tehran’s message signals that Iran is prepared to resume attacks on ports in Gulf Arab countries if the U.S. carries out its promise to block all maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports starting at 10 a.m. (New York time) on Monday.
An action of this kind would also likely intensify tensions between Washington and Beijing, since China buys virtually all of Iran’s oil exports.
The actual closure of the strait since the start of the war has already triggered a surge in oil and gas prices, turning the region into the epicenter of a conflict that has lasted more than six weeks and shows no signs of a lasting truce. The United States/Israel and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire on April 7, but weekend talks for a broader agreement ended without progress.
The U.S. President Donald Trump announced the blockade in response to the failure of those negotiations in Pakistan and threatened to resume American military strikes if Iran resists. “Any Iranian who shoots at us, or at civilian ships, will be SENT STRAIGHT TO HELL!” he wrote.
It is not yet clear exactly where the blockade would be imposed nor how many ships would be used to enforce it.
The decision is considered high risk because it could worsen the shock to the global energy supply and push prices even higher. Brent jumped after Trump’s announcement, rising nearly 7% to $102 a barrel on Monday. European gas futures rose as much as 18%.
“A blockade, by itself, is a game of who blinks first, in which I think Iran has the upper hand, because it can withstand the pressure for a while,” Nouriel Roubini, CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, said at the Greenwich Economic Forum in Hong Kong. “We will be in a worse scenario, with pricier oil, falling stock markets, and rising bond yields.”
Worldwide, refiners and traders are rushing to secure immediately available oil cargoes, amid the squeeze on physical supply.
“Enjoy the current pump prices. With the so-called ‘blockade,’ soon you’ll miss gasoline at $4–$5,” posted on X by the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, referring to the already high fuel prices in the United States.
Ghalibaf led the Iranian delegation in negotiations in Islamabad, which derailed over differences about Iran’s nuclear program. The American vice president, JD Vance, represented Washington.
A blockade of Iranian ships would cut one of Tehran’s main revenue sources. The country had kept oil exports near pre-war levels and was earning even more from the higher price per barrel driven by the conflict.
Trump’s plan is also likely to affect China, one of the Islamic Republic’s biggest trading partners. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters on Monday that the measure threatens international trade and urged both sides to “remain calm and act responsibly.”
Even though the U.S. and Israel have halted bombardments on Iranian territory — and Tehran, in response, has suspended missile launches against Gulf countries — Israel continues with its ground offensive in Lebanon to hit Hezbollah, the armed group backed by Iran.
On Monday, the Israeli army said it had surrounded Bint Jbeil, a town in a highland region about 4 km from the border with Israel, and said it was preparing an attack.
Hezbollah regards Bint Jbeil as one of its main strongholds and calls it the “capital of resistance and liberation.”
Israel’s operation in Lebanon — which, according to the Lebanese government, has already left more than 2,000 dead — was one of the most sensitive points in discussions about the ceasefire between the United States and Iran. Representatives from Israel and the Lebanese government — which for years has promised to disarm Hezbollah, without success — are expected to meet again this week.
The escalation around Hormuz and Lebanon threatens to prolong and widen a war that has already caused thousands of deaths, while the risk of energy shortages increases worries about a fresh global inflation wave.
The two-week ceasefire ends on April 22, unless the American blockade precipitates the breakdown of the agreement before then. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said any military vessel attempting to approach the strait “under any pretext” will be treated as a violation of the ceasefire, according to state television.
Although neither side has confirmed a second round of negotiations, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said there was convergence on several points, but there are still impasses “on two or three central issues.”
“It was natural not to expect an agreement already at the first meeting,” he said on state TV after the talks. “Diplomacy never ends,” he said, adding that Iran “will continue to defend its national interests in any scenario.”
A U.S. government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Sunday that it had become clear to the U.S. team that the Iranian delegation did not understand the administration’s main objective: to ensure that the Islamic Republic never gains access to a nuclear weapon.
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