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<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
Donald Trump says the Strait of Hormuz will reopen \u201cfairly soon\u201d with or without Iran\u2019s assistance, as Tehran\u2019s effective blockade of the waterway continues to disrupt energy supplies worldwide.<\/p>\n
The president said the US would \u201copen up the Gulf\u201d and that other countries were ready to \u201chelp out\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt won\u2019t be easy,\u201d Trump told reporters on Friday before peace talks between US and Iranian negotiators in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say this: We will have that open fairly soon,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Trump did not elaborate on how the US would unblock the critically important chokepoint.<\/p>\n
He warned that he would not accept Iran\u2019s effective imposition of a tollbooth system on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Tehran has indicated that it intends to charge vessel owners fees for safe passage, even in the event of a deal to end the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they are doing that, we\u2019re not going to let that happen,\u201d Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One in Maryland.<\/p>\n
Trump said ensuring Iran does not possess nuclear weapons would be the priority in any peace agreement, and the strait would open \u201cautomatically\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo nuclear weapons, that\u2019s 99 per cent of it,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strait will open up,\u201d he added. \u201cIf we just left \u2026 otherwise they make no money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran on Tuesday, shipping in the strait effectively remains at a standstill, disrupting energy exports from the Gulf.<\/p>\n
Shipping tracking data shows that since the start of the ceasefire, just 22 ships with their automatic identification system turned on have exited the strait. That\u2019s compared with about 135 daily transits before the war.<\/p>\n
More than 600 vessels, including 325 tankers, remain stranded in the Gulf, according to Lloyd\u2019s List Intelligence.<\/p>\n
The situation in the strait is \u201cfundamentally unchanged\u201d from how it was before the ceasefire, said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is essentially the gatekeeper, letting its own tankers through, letting some allies or friendlies send through products for humanitarian reasons,\u201d Smith told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then there is a final subset which may be either brave or have approval from Iran to pass through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said it is unclear whether vessel owners have been paying tolls to Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we do know is that there is a new shipping route to exit the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 a \u2018safe corridor\u2019 that Iran is governing and vessels are using,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The US vice president JD Vance has landed in Pakistan for talks with Iranian negotiators \u00a0aimed at securing a permanent end to the war.<\/p>\n