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.

The two ships that came under fire for 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 after a convoy of ships tried to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned an attack on French United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and ordered an investigation into the incident.

‘I condemn in the strongest terms today’s attack on members of the French battalion in UNIFIL,’ Salam said, referring to the peacekeepers, adding that he gave ‘strict instructions for an immediate investigation to uncover the circumstances of this attack and hold the perpetrators accountable’.

A spokesperson for UNIFIL confirmed that an incident involving their peacekeepers took place in Ghandouriyeh, southern Lebanon, without giving additional details on the nature of the attack or casualties.

The Israeli Defence Forces said on Saturday that it had carried out strikes against ‘terrorists’ in southern Lebanon, who it accused of violating its ‘Yellow Line’.

The Israeli military said it had established the demarcation, thought to separate its forces from territory held by Hezbollah, adding that it had struck suspected militants approaching its troops along the line.

‘Over the past 24 hours, IDF forces operating south of the Yellow Line in southern Lebanon identified terrorists who violated the ceasefire understandings and approached the forces from north of the Yellow Line in a manner that posed an immediate threat,’ the military said, referring to such a line for the first time since a ceasefire came into effect.

In a post in English on social media, the IDF added: ‘In order to remove the threat, the IDF conducted precise strikes against the terrorists and terrorist infrastructure sites.’

Israel is currently occupying large parts of southern Lebanon, having issued widespread evacuation orders following it moving into the country amid its war with Hezbollah.

A fragile ceasefire was agreed late on Thursday.

Iran’s navy has sent a radio warning to ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Merchant vessels have reported receiving an alert from Tehran’s military telling them that no ships are allowed to pass through as the strait is closed.

An Iranian minister has said that US President Donald Trump ‘talks a lot’, adding that no date has been set for the next round of talks between the two nations.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told journalists on the sidelines of an annual Turkish diplomatic forum on Saturday: ‘The American side tweets a lot, talks a lot. Sometimes confusing, sometimes, you know, contradictory.’

He added no date has been set for further talks between the two sides, following the implementation of a temporary ceasefire.

‘Until we agree on the framework, we cannot set the date,’ Mr Khatibzadeh sai

Earlier, Washington threatened fresh strikes if no deal was reached with Tehran.

Iran’s supreme leader has warned his navy is ready to ‘inflict bitter defeats’ on the country’s enemies, as fresh gunfire was reported in the Strait of Hormuz.

In a lengthy post on Telegram on Saturday, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised the nation’s army and navy and accused the US and Israel of ‘arrogance’.

Khamenei has not been seen since the outbreak of the conflict on February 28, with rumours he was gravely injured in an airstrike by the US and Israel.

His statement read:

The Islamic Army is now courageously defending the land, water, and flag that belong to it, just as it did in the previous two imposed wars.

With its strong support from God and the people, in compact, solid ranks, and standing side by side with their comrades from the other armed forces, it’s battling the two leading armies of unbelief and Arrogance.

And the Islamic Army has exposed those armies’ weakness and abjectness to the world.

In the same way that its drones strike the US and the Zionist murderers like lightning, its valiant navy is also ready to inflict new bitter defeats on its enemies.

Pakistan’s powerful military chief and prime minister on Saturday concluded separate visits aimed at ending the Iran war, with Field Marshal Asim Munir leaving Tehran and premier Shehbaz Sharif (pictured) headed home from Turkey.

Munir met Iran’s top leadership and peace negotiators during a three-day visit to Tehran, a Pakistani military statement said.

The visit showed Pakistan’s ‘unwavering resolve to facilitate a negotiated settlement… and to promote peace, stability, and prosperity’, the military said ahead of expected US-Iran talks in Islamabad in the coming days.

Munir held talks with the country’s president, foreign minister, parliament speaker and the head of Iran’s military central command centre.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi led the Iranian delegation to Islamabad for peace talks with the United States last week, the highest level face-to-face contact between the two countries in decades.

Those talks ended without an agreement, but diplomacy continued thereafter, with Pakistan’s prime minister undertaking a three-country tour to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to push the peace process.

That visit also concluded on Saturday, with Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar departing a diplomacy forum in Antalya, according to statements from both officials.

A second round of talks between the United States and Iran is expected in Islamabad this coming week.

Mediators in the conflict between the US and Iran are working ‘very hard’ to find a final peace agreement, it was said today.

It is hoped a deal could be reached ‘in the coming days’.

Egypt’s foreign minister said Egypt and Pakistan are working ‘very hard’ as mediators to bring about ‘a final agreement between the United States and Iran’, as he attended an Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey.

‘We hope to do so (reach an agreement) in the coming days,’ Badr Abdelatty said, noting that ‘not only us in the region, but the whole world is suffering from the continuation of this war’.

‘We are pushing very hard in order to move forward,’ he said.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea, extending an earlier move to soften surging energy prices.

The license, issued by the Treasury Department, comes two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would not renew the waiver.

The latest move allows for the purchase of oil and petroleum products that have been loaded onto any vessel as of Friday, until 12:01am (0401 GMT) on May 16.

It prolongs an earlier easing of sanctions that expired on April 11.

The measure is aimed to ease global supply shocks from the US-Israeli war against Iran.

UN peacekeepers are patrolling the streets of Lebanon after a ten-day ceasefire agreement was reached on Thursday.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has led to the deaths of almost 2,300 people and has displaced more than one million.

Earlier, Iran indicated that its agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was directly tied to the ceasefire agreement.

Regardless, that now appears to have been blown out of the water after Tehran announced the resumption of ‘strict controls’ in the shipping lane.