![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/strait-of-hormuz-fully-open-to-commercial-vessels-says-iranian-minister.jpg\")
Motorbikes drive past a billboard that shows a graphic depicting a soldier\u2019s hand holding the Strait of Hormuz (Vahid Salemi\/AP)<\/p>\nIran\u2019s foreign minister and US President Donald Trump have said the Strait of Hormuz is fully open to commercial vessels.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, Mr Trump said Iran announced that the strait \u201cis fully open and ready for full passage\u201d.<\/p>\n
Minutes earlier, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that the passage for all commercial vessels through the strait \u201cis declared completely open\u201d in line with the ceasefire in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Motorbikes drive past a billboard that shows a graphic depicting a soldier\u2019s hand holding the Strait of Hormuz (Vahid Salemi\/AP)<\/p>\n
He said it would stay open for the remaining period of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump claimed the US blockade of Iran \u201cwill remain in full force\u201d until Iran reaches deal to end the war. He also said that Iran, with the help of the US, is working to remove all sea mines from the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump also reiterated his suggestion that Iran has agreed to hand over its enriched uranium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S.A. will get all Nuclear \u2018Dust\u2019, created by our great B2 Bombers \u2013 No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form,\u201d he said in a social media post.<\/p>\n
\u201cNuclear dust\u201d is shorthand that Mr Trump frequently uses to refer to the highly enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites the US bombed during last year\u2019s 12-day war between Israel and Iran.<\/p>\n
If true, it would be a major concession from Iran and would lock in a key US demand to end the conflict. But neither Iran nor countries acting as intermediaries in the conflict have said that Tehran has made such an agreement.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Beirut, barrages of gunshots rang out across the city as residents fired into the air just after midnight to celebrate the beginning of the truce, and displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to attempt to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon said on Friday that they have not observed any air strikes since midnight but accused the Israeli military of violating airspace and artillery shelling in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military did not immediately comment. According to the agreement shared by the State Department, Israel can act in self-defence against imminent attacks but cannot carry out offensive operations against southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump said later that Israel is \u201cprohibited\u201d from further strikes on Lebanon.<\/p>\n
He offered the unusually blunt statement demanding restraint, the day after Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael will not be bombing Lebanon any longer,\u201d Mr Trump said on social media. He posted: \u201cThey are PROHIBITED from doing so by the USA Enough is enough!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Trump had heralded the deal as a \u201chistoric day for Lebanon\u201d even as he expressed confidence that the war with Iran would soon end in a Las Vegas speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly,\u201d Mr Trump said. \u201cIt should be ending pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
An end to Israel\u2019s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking the current ceasefire deal with strikes on Lebanon. Israel said that deal did not cover Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s army chief met on Thursday with Iran\u2019s parliament speaker as part of international efforts to press for an extension of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n
While oil prices fell on hopes of a deal, the head of the International Energy Agency warned that energy shocks could get worse if the Strait of Hormuz did not reopen soon.<\/p>\n
Iran closed the crucial waterway, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil normally passes, shortly after the war began. Europe has \u201cmaybe six weeks or so\u201d of jet fuel left and broader economic consequences will grow the longer the strait is closed, IEA executive director Fatih Birol told The Associated Press on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s hard-line defence Minister Israel Katz warned on Friday that Israel plans to respect the ceasefire even though attempts to completely disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon are \u201cnot yet complete\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Katz said that Israel would continue to hold all the places it is currently stationed, including a buffer zone extending six miles from the border with Israel into southern Lebanon. He said that many homes in the area would be destroyed and Lebanese residents will not return to the area.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed to the ceasefire \u201cto advance\u201d peace efforts with Lebanon, but also said Israeli troops would not withdraw.<\/p>\n
Israeli forces have engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the border area as they pushed into southern Lebanon to create what officials have called a \u201csecurity zone\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is where we are, and we are not leaving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah has said that Lebanese people have \u201cthe right to resist\u201d Israeli occupation of their land and that their actions \u201cwill be determined based on how developments unfold\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s foreign minister and US President Donald Trump have said the Strait of Hormuz is fully open to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-403751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}