Iran closes Strait of Hormuz less than a day after reopening it: live

Gunfire has been reported after at least two ships tried to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz.

Maritime sources suggested that the vessels had received fire after trying to cross the strait after Iran’s earlier announcement it had again closed it to traffic.

It is believed that one of the affected vessels may be an Indian oil tanker, although this has not been independently confirmed.

The UKMTO said it had received a report of a tanker being approached by two IRGC gun boats, around 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman.

These boats are said to have fired on the tanker. All crew are safe and accounted for, the agency added.

The Strait of Hormuz has again been closed to international shipping, Iran has said.

State broadcaster IRIB confirmed in the last few minutes the shipping route, which sees 20 per cent of global oil and gas pass through it each year, is ‘closed’ and any passage requires approval from Tehran.

Iran had earlier allowed a convoy of ships to pass for the first time since the outbreak of the conflict.

But after it became clear the US was continuing a blockade against Iranian ships, Tehran has once again implemented the closure, a spokesperson said.

For this reason, control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state, and this strategic strait is under the strict management and control of the armed forces.

As long as the United States does not end the complete freedom of passage of vessels from Iran to destination and from destination to Iran, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will remain under strict control and in its previous state.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has said ships must pay to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, after it closed the shipping route again earlier today.

A statement to Iran’s Fars News Agency said the military is determined to exercise control over the waterway until a final peace deal is reached in the conflict.

Tehran, which had previously threatened to charge tolls on the strait, said that ships must pay the costs of providing security and protecting the environment if they want to secure safe passage.

US President Donald Trump has said that Iran ‘got a little cute’ in reference to its earlier closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but that Tehran ‘can’t blackmail us’.

At a press conference announcing new treatments for mental health issues, the President brought up the conflict with Iran and said they would not ‘get away with murder… anymore’.

We have very good conversations going on it’s been going very well.

They got a little cute as they have been doing for the past 47 years and nobody ever took them on, we took them on.

They have no navy, they have no air force, they have no leaders, they have no nothing.

He continued:

We’re talking to them, they wanted to close up the strait again as they’ve been doing for years, they can’t blackmail us.

The President said more information will be available ‘by the end of the day’. He added:

They’ve gotten away with murder for 47 years, they’re not getting away with it anymore.

There have been at least three separate attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz since Iran announced it was reclosing the shipping lane this morning, a US source has claimed.

One container ship has been struck by a projectile, but no major damage was reported.

Earlier, the UKMTO also said gunfire had been reported by a tanker in the area.

In the last half an hour, the maritime security agency also reported ‘suspicious activity’ in the vicinity of a cruise ship in the strait.

‘UKMTO has received a report of an incident 3NM east of OMAN,’ the warning read.

‘The Master of a Cruise ship reported sighting a splash in close proximity of the vessel. Vessels are advised to report suspicious activity to UKMTO.’

The UKMTO has issued another warning for vessels in the Strait of Hormuz after it was alerted to a container vessel being struck by an ‘unknown projectile’.

The report came around two hours after ships said they had been targeted by gunfire from boats linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The second incident occurred around 25 nautical miles northeast of Oman.

The UKMTO said some containers were damaged, but no fires or environmental impact have been reported.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qamati said on Saturday that his group was not concerned by Lebanon’s planned direct talks with Israel, labelling them a failure.

In a press conference in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Qamati said his group was ‘not concerned with the negotiations being conducted by the state”, saying they were “a failure, weak, defeated… and submissive negotiations’.

‘The resistance is the one that imposes. We are the land… and we are the ones who draw up the decisions, not those who have an official status,’ he said, adding that while his group did not mind Beirut ‘coordinating with us… not in this way that leads to surrender’.

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron blamed Hezbollah for an attack on UN peacekeepers which killed one French national and left three others injured.

Merchant ships have been pictured at anchor in and around the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran earlier announced it had closed it – less than 24 hours after saying it was ‘completely open’.

US Central Command has announced that it has forced a total of 23 ships to turn around near the Strait of Hormuz since its naval blockade was established.

It said AH-64 Apaches – a model of attack helicopter – fly above region to provide ‘a visible presence in support of freedom of navigation’.

Iran closed the strait again in response to the continued American naval blockade in the Arabian Sea.

President Macron has posted on X saying a French soldier who was taking part in an international peacekeeping mission in Lebanon was killed this morning in the south of the country.

Three other soldiers were wounded and evacuated during the attack against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil)’s peacekeeping mission, the French president says, and adds available information suggests that Hezbollah is responsible.

He demands the Lebanese authorities immediately arrest the alleged perpetrators.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has strongly condemned the attack on Unifil’s French peacekeepers.

‘I have issued strict instructions to conduct an immediate investigation to uncover the circumstances of this attack and to hold the perpetrators accountable,” he says in a post on X.

‘It goes without saying that this irresponsible behaviour causes great harm to Lebanon and its relations with friendly countries around the world that support it.’

Salam did not elaborate on who carried out the attack.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard are showing ‘very reckless behaviour’ in the Strait of Hormuz, a former Qatari security official has told Sky News.

‘If these reports are true, it’s very reckless behaviour by the IRGC,’ Nawaf al Thani, Qatar’s former director of defence intelligence operations to the US, said.

Qatar is bordering the strait, which Iran closed again this morning, creating ‘a very dangerous situation’ in the narrow lane, Al Thani added.

The two ships that came under fire from the Revolution Guard were Indian vessels, according to channel 16 audio recordings.

One of which was a VLVV supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

It comes after gunfire was reported as a convoy of ships tried to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz.