Iran warns ships around Hormuz to stay anchored: 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.

The IDF has confirmed that they have launched a fresh wave of attacks in southern Lebanon.

According to AlJazeera, the Israeli Army has launched two air strikes on what it has described as ‘the new yellow line’.

One of the strikes targeted a Hezbollah group that was approaching the yellow line, the publication has reported.

Meanwhile, the second allegedly struck a man who was coming into a tunnel entrance that was south of the yellow line.

According to the newspaper, Israel carried out the attack on him and destroyed the tunnel entrance, as a military spokesperson maintained it did not violate the ceasefire.

Esmail Baqaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, has said Europe’s inability to ‘practice what it preaches’ has turned its talk on international law into ‘peak hypocrisy in a brutal swipe at the EU’s foreign policy chief.

Earlier today, Kaja Kallas the EU’s foreign policy chief, says transit through waterways like the Strait of Hormuz ‘must remain open and free of charge’ under international law.

In response on X, Baquei issued the following response, where he accused the diplomatic bloc of ‘green-lighting’ the US and Israel’s attacks:

Oh, that ‘international law’?! The one that the EU dusts off to lecture others while quietly green-lighting a U.S.-Israeli war of aggression—and looking the other way on atrocities against Iranians?!

Spare the sermons; Europe’s chronic failure to practice what it preaches has turned its ‘international law’ talk into peak hypocrisy. No rule of international law forbids Iran, the coastal State, from taking necessary measures to stop the Strait of Hormuz being used for waging military aggression against Iran.

And ‘unconditional transit passage’ in Hormuz? That fiction sailed the moment U.S./Israeli aggression brought U.S. military assets into the strait’s backyard.

Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has branded the US blockade of Iran’s ports as ‘an ill-judged and misguided decision’.

He told the country’s state TV:

I had said that if they do not lift the blockade, transit through the Strait would certainly be restricted.

He also stated that the strategic passage was ‘under the control’ of Tehran.

Meanwhile, he said Iran ‘stood firm and confronted’ Washington when they wanted to carry out mine-clearing operations in the Strait of Hormuz.

He added:

We regarded this as a breach of the ceasefire and said that if they took such action, we would strike.”

Donald Trump convened an emergency situation room meeting with his inner circle on Saturday to discuss the precarious Strait of Hormuz situation, according to a report.

The president met with Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others, Axios reported, citing two US officials.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratliffe, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine also reportedly attended.

The meeting comes amid reports that US soldiers are preparing to storm Iran-backed ships ‘in a matter of days,’ US officials told The Wall Street Journal.

The Iranian military declared the Strait of Hormuz closed again today, prompting ships to abandon attempts to transit

On Friday, Tehran had declared the strait open after a ceasefire was agreed in Israel’s war with Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This prompted elation in global markets and sent oil prices plunging, but with Trump insisting that a US naval blockade of Iranian ports would continue until a deal to end the wider war was concluded, Tehran said it was shuttering the strait once more late on Saturday morning.

Iran’s central military command said that, in response to the US blockade, Hormuz was again ‘under strict management and control of the armed forces’.

The Revolutionary Guards warned that any effort to cross ‘will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted’.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy tonight warned that ‘no vessel should make any movement from its anchorage in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and approaching the Strait of Hormuz will be considered as cooperation with the enemy’ and will be targeted.

‘We warn that no ship, of any kind, should leave its anchorage in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. Any attempt to approach the Strait of Hormuz will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted,’ the navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on its official Sepah News website.

The Israeli military said a soldier was killed in southern Lebanon on Friday, the day after the start of a US-brokered ceasefire.

It said two other soldiers were injured in the incident, but didn’t release any more details.

This brings to 14 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in the latest war in Lebanon.

Naim Kassem, head of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, in a statement read on the group’s al-Manar TV, said a paper published by the US State Department that it described as the text of a ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel ‘means nothing at the practical level, but it is an insult to our country.’

‘Everyone knows that the government of Lebanon has not met or approved this statement,’ he said.

The text published by the U.S described the 10-day truce as a gesture by Israel ‘to enable good-faith negotiations’ toward a permanent peace agreement with Lebanon.

The text gives Israel the ‘right to take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.’ It does not mention any similar right for Lebanon or Hezbollah.

Residents drive home following a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Nabatieh, Lebanon, April 18, 2026

A resident smokes a cigarette as he sits beside his damaged shop following a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Nabatieh, Lebanon, April 18, 2026

Zahra Eid, 60, who was displaced in Byblos district, reacts while inspecting her house destroyed by Israeli strikes, after returning to her village, following the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tayr Debba, south Lebanon, April 18, 2026

A woman surveys the damage of her home that was destroyed by an Israeli air-strike that killed 7 of her neighbors in Nabatieh on the second day of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon, on April 18, 2026 in Nabatieh, Lebanon

Tens of thousands of displaced Lebanese have started returning to their homes after being forced to flee due to Israeli strikes, following the implementation of a 10-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon announced by U.S. President Donald Trump in April 18, 2026

Excavators remove rubble from buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes on Thursday as rescuers search for victims in the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon, Saturday, April 18, 2026

Haya Dahnoun, 14, who said she survived an Israeli strike that forced her to flee with her parents to Beirut, stands at the window as she recounts the day they were hit after returning home following a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Nabatieh, Lebanon, April 18, 2026

A displaced resident looks out at destruction caused by Israeli strikes as she drives home following a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel that went into effect, in Nabatieh, Lebanon, April 18, 2026