Iran has misplaced mines it laid in the Strait of Hormuz and is now unable to clear them, US officials warned last night.
The regime’s failure to locate the explosives – which it laid ‘haphazardly’ – may be to blame for the delay in Tehran opening the shipping lane to more vessels, sources added.
It leaves tankers and other commercial ships crossing the Strait, through which up to 25 per cent of the world’s oil passes, in danger of being blown up.
The warnings came as peace talks between the US and Iran began in Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad yesterday, following Wednesday’s fragile truce between the two countries after six weeks of conflict.
But the ceasefire appeared to be on the verge of collapse before the crunch talks even began following Tehran’s threat to destroy US naval ships that enter the Strait.
Iran’s warning followed reports that at least two US navy ships passed through the shipping lane yesterday. Their mission has yet to be revealed.
Adding to the confusion, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the US was actively clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz and promised it would be reopened soon.
He said: ‘We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favour to countries all over the world, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany and many others. Incredibly, they don’t have the courage or will to do this work themselves.’
Ahead of the talks yesterday, Mr Trump appeared to taunt Tehran, also writing: ‘Their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft apparatus is non-existent, radar is dead, their missile and drone factories have been largely obliterated along with the missiles and drones themselves and, most importantly, their long-time leaders are no longer with us, praise be to Allah!’
A US delegation led by Vice President J D Vance, Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner yesterday held historic face-to-face meetings with Iranian negotiators in Islamabad.
It was the first time the US and Iran had held direct talks with one another for ten years – the most recent being the Iranian nuclear deal during the Barack Obama years.
Tehran yesterday claimed one of the ‘pre-conditions’ of the talks was the end of all Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which it said formed part of the truce agreed last week.
But Israel reportedly subjected Lebanon to at least 100 strikes yesterday as it targeted Hezbollah. Retaliating, the terror group fired missiles and drones at the Jewish state.
Israel also said it will take part in direct peace talks with the Lebanese government in Washington on Tuesday.
The Iranian delegation of 70 in Pakistan was led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as well as foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
On Mr Ghalibaf’s flight to Islamabad, empty seats on the plane carried photos of some of the 120 children from a school in Minab, southern Iran, killed during a US air strike on the first day of the six-week conflict.
The US and Iran yesterday said talks were ‘going well’, but few details have been released.
It emerged last night that Iran’s new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, sustained serious facial injuries that have left him disfigured and that he may have also had a leg amputated.
Tehran officials, who spoke anonymously, said that despite his injuries, Khamenei was ‘mentally sharp’ and taking part in all meetings, including those on the war and in Islamabad.
The sources dismiss previous US claims that the new Supreme Leader was either dead or in a coma after he was injured in US air strikes on a regime compound in Tehran that left his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dead, alongside most members of his family.
