Hormuz reopens — blockade stays
Iran’s foreign minister said the Strait of Hormuz is fully open to commercial shipping and President Trump also indicated the waterway had reopened, but the U.S. has said its naval blockade of Iran will continue. Parliamentary analysis also notes that the U.S. and Israel have carried out strikes on Iranian targets, underscoring that commercial traffic is moving again even as military and economic pressure remains in place. (latimes.com) (cbc.ca) (commonslibrary.parliament.uk)
Iran said on April 17 that the Strait of Hormuz was open again to commercial shipping, even as the United States said its blockade of Iran would stay in place. (apnews.com) Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage for “all commercial vessels” was “completely open” after a Lebanon ceasefire. President Donald Trump also posted that the waterway had reopened, but said the U.S. blockade on Iranian ships and ports would remain “in full force” until Tehran agreed to a deal. (cbc.ca) (cnbc.com) That left a split-screen policy in one of the world’s busiest energy chokepoints: commercial transit was being encouraged, while Iranian-linked shipping still faced U.S. military and economic pressure. Shipping specialists told The New York Times that official statements alone had not removed the security risk for vessels, crews or insurers. (nytimes.com) The strait matters far beyond Iran and the Gulf. The House of Commons Library said about one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies move through Hormuz, making any closure or threat there an immediate energy-market problem. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) (telegraph.co.uk) The reopening came after weeks of war. The House of Commons Library said the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, saying they were targeting military infrastructure, the nuclear and ballistic missile program, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) That same parliamentary briefing said Iran answered with strikes on Israel, U.S. bases in the region and sites in Arab states hosting U.S. forces. It also said no United Nations Security Council resolution had endorsed the U.S. and Israeli strikes. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) Washington’s blockade is narrower than a full closure of the waterway. Trump said ships not tied to Iran could move through Hormuz, while the U.S. would keep blocking Iranian ports and vessels as leverage in talks over Iran’s nuclear program and broader terms of a settlement. (abcnews.go.com) (politico.com) Iranian messaging was not entirely uniform. CNBC reported that media affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard described only a limited reopening and warned the strait could close again if the U.S. blockade continued. (cnbc.com) By April 18, the picture was already shifting again. The Washington Post and other outlets reported that Iran had moved to reimpose restrictions after the U.S. said it would not lift the blockade, underscoring how quickly declarations about Hormuz can change on the water. (washingtonpost.com) (yahoo.com) For now, the clearest fact is that reopening commercial traffic did not end the confrontation. Hormuz was presented on April 17 as open for trade, but the U.S. blockade and the wider Iran-Israel-U.S. conflict were still in place. (apnews.com) (commonslibrary.parliament.uk)
