Donald Trump threw the world into chaos yesterday by announcing that America would blockade ‘any and all ships’ attempting to use the Strait of Hormuz.
The US President said he was going to ‘clean out’ the vital waterway, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas passes.
While Mr Trump failed to explain how or when the blockade would become operational, the US Central Command (Centcom) last night said its forces will begin the blockade today at 3pm UK time.
‘The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,’ it said.
‘Centcom forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.’
It came as Keir Starmer stressed ‘the need to work with a wide coalition of partners to protect freedom of navigation’ in the Strait as he spoke to French president Emmanuel Macron last night.
Britain will not play a part in any moves to blockade the Strait, the Daily Mail understands.
Mr Trump wrote on social media: ‘Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!’ He said the US would ‘finish up the little that is left of Iran’, adding: ‘THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION.’
‘We’re putting on a complete blockade,’ he told Fox News. ‘We’re not going to let Iran make money by selling oil to people that they like, and not people that they don’t like. It’s going to be all or none, and that’s the way it is.
‘We’re going to clean out the Strait and [ships] will be able to use it in not too long a distance.’
Last night the Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Trump was weighing up resuming limited military strikes in Iran in addition to the blockade in order to find a breakthrough on the peace talks.
It came as Tehran’s foreign minister claimed it was ‘inches away’ from agreeing a deal with the US.
Oil and gas prices have soared and stock markets have fallen since the Strait was closed by Iran at the start of its conflict with the US in February.
Airlines have warned of higher ticket prices as jet fuel costs have doubled, and supermarkets are likely to introduce price hikes due to higher importing and packaging costs.
Yesterday, Mr Trump said Iranian explosives would be cleared from the Strait by minesweepers, including some from the UK.
‘We have highly sophisticated underwater minesweepers, which are the latest and the greatest, but we’re also bringing in more traditional minesweepers,’ he said.
‘I understand the UK and a couple of other countries are sending minesweepers.’
The blockade plan comes after peace talks with Iran, led by US Vice President JD Vance in Islamabad, Pakistan, broke down on Saturday.
While the discussions took place, Mr Trump attended an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) match in Miami.
The President said the Iranians had refused to comply with his main demand that they abandon their ambition to own a nuclear weapon.
‘They want to have nuclear weapons. They’re not going to have nuclear weapons. I’ve been saying that for 30 years. I would never allow that to happen,’ he added.
His announcement that US naval ships would move into the Strait may have been designed to exert further pressure on Iran.
‘I do believe they’re going to come to the table on this, because nobody can be so stupid as to say “we want to have nuclear weapons” when they have no cards,’ Mr Trump said.
Referring to his threat last week that Iran’s ‘whole civilisation’ would die, the President said: ‘That statement got them to the bargaining table, and they haven’t left. I predict they come back and they give us everything we want.
‘And I’ve told my people, I want everything. I don’t want 90 per cent, I don’t want 95 per cent, I want everything.
‘I could take out Iran in one day. I could take it out in one hour. They wouldn’t have one bridge or electric generating plant still standing, and they’re back in the stone ages. I’d rather not do that.’
Iran has failed to reopen the Strait fully since an interim ceasefire with the US was announced last Tuesday.
A handful of tankers, mainly Chinese, have navigated the passageway, but it is understood they paid cryptocurrency tolls to Iran.
Mr Trump said the US navy would ‘seek and interdict’ vessels that had paid such tolls.
The President also said he was ‘very disappointed’ that Nato and countries that get most of their oil through the Strait, such as Japan and South Korea, had not offered to help with the conflict.
Last night, former senior British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram said Mr Trump had ‘misread the Iranians quite badly’.
‘They will not compromise became don’t respond to threats, that’s just their psyche,’ he said.
Last night, Health Secretary Wes Streeting criticised Mr Trump’s ‘incendiary, provocative, outrageous’ language.
Israel ramps up ‘readiness’ for more fighting
By Chris Pollard
Israel’s military was moved to a ‘heightened state of readiness’ to prepare for further conflict with Iran yesterday, as it continued to pummel Lebanon with missiles.
Eyal Zamir, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) chief, said response times would be shortened in case further air strikes were needed.
It echoes his words following the announcement of a ceasefire last week, when he said Israel remained ‘in a state of war’ and that forces could ‘return to fighting at any moment, and in a very powerful way’.
On Wednesday, hours after the ceasefire was agreed, it launched 100 deadly strikes on Beirut, Lebanon, killing 300 people including at least 33 children.
Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun, who has made disarming terror group Hezbollah a key priority, branded the strike a ‘massacre’.
Meanwhile, Israeli bombing raids continued in the south of Lebanon, home to Hezbollah.
The IDF yesterday said it had ‘struck and dismantled’ a rocket launcher that was ‘positioned and ready to launch’ towards Israel.
There has been disagreement over whether the ceasefire between the US and Iran includes Lebanon, but Donald Trump called Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah a ‘separate skirmish’.
Israel and Lebanon are set to hold talks next week in Washington.
