Report: U.S. orders Hormuz blockade
After 21 hours of talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement, reports said President Trump ordered an "immediate" U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The same report said the wider conflict has already left thousands dead and has roiled global markets. ( )
President Donald Trump said on April 12 that the United States Navy would begin blockading ships in the Strait of Hormuz after direct talks with Iran in Islamabad ended without a deal. (newarab.com) Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. and Iranian delegations met for 21 hours in Pakistan and still failed to agree on American terms for ending the war and constraining Iran’s nuclear program. Gulf News and Reuters both reported that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff joined the U.S. side in Islamabad. (gulfnews.com, defensenews.com) Trump said the blockade would start “effective immediately,” and Reuters reported two empty supertankers turned around in the strait on Sunday as the talks collapsed and the ceasefire came under new strain. Three loaded supertankers had crossed the passage a day earlier. (newarab.com, alarabiya.net, aljazeera.com) The strait is a narrow shipping lane between Iran and Oman that carries about 20 million barrels of oil a day, roughly one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade, according to the International Energy Agency. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said flows through the waterway accounted for about one-fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption in 2024. (iea.org, eia.gov) That traffic had already not returned to normal after the ceasefire. CBS News reported that only about a dozen ships passed through the strait in the first two days of the truce, far below prewar levels. (cbsnews.com) Iran had treated control of the waterway as leverage for weeks. The New Arab reported on March 21 that Trump gave Tehran 48 hours to reopen the passage, while later reporting and CBS coverage said Iran had considered tolls on tanker traffic and accused the United States of violating ceasefire terms tied to Israel’s war in Lebanon. (newarab.com, cbsnews.com) The economic fallout had spread well beyond the Gulf before Sunday’s order. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said last week that the Hormuz disruption was slowing trade growth, lifting inflation pressure and tightening financial conditions in developing economies. (unctad.org) Iran described the Islamabad talks as “intensive” and urged Washington to avoid “excessive demands and unlawful requests,” according to Gulf News. By Sunday afternoon, the immediate question was whether the U.S. Navy would try to force open the world’s busiest oil chokepoint without a new agreement from Tehran. (gulfnews.com, newarab.com)
