{"id":406130,"date":"2026-04-19T04:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/406130\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T04:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:30:11","slug":"iran-tightens-control-of-strait-of-hormuz-as-trump-warns-against-blackmail-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/406130\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran tightens control of Strait of Hormuz as Trump warns against \u2018blackmail\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran<\/a> said it was tightening control over the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, warning mariners the vital energy route was again closed, but US president Donald Trump<\/a> said Tehran could not blackmail the United States by \u200cshutting the waterway.<\/p>\n

Tehran said it was responding to a continued US blockade of Iranian ports, calling it a violation of their ceasefire, while Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei <\/a>said Iran\u2019s navy was ready to inflict \u201cnew bitter defeats\u201d on its enemies.<\/p>\n

Shipping sources said at least two vessels reported coming under fire and \u200bbeing hit while trying to transit the waterway. India later said the Iranian ambassador in New Delhi had been summoned and that it had expressed deep concern to him that two Indian-flagged ships had come under fire in the strait.<\/p>\n

State media in Iran quoted the Supreme National Security Council as saying Iranian control over the strait included demanding the payment of costs related to security, safety and environmental protection services.<\/p>\n

State television also quoted the Supreme National Security Council as saying the US had put forward new proposals after talks mediated by Pakistan in recent days. Tehran was considering them but \u200bhad not yet responded, it said.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate sign of direct US-Iran talks taking place at the weekend, despite Trump saying on Friday that negotiations would take place.<\/p>\n

Tehran\u2019s renewed tough messaging caused fresh uncertainty around the Iran conflict, raising the risk that oil and gas shipments through \u2060the strait could remain disrupted just as Washington weighs whether to extend the fragile ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Trump said the US was having \u201cvery good conversations\u201d with Iran but that Tehran wanted to close the strait again. Iran could \u200cnot \u200cblackmail \u200bthe US, he said.<\/p>\n

Maritime security and shipping sources said some merchant vessels had received radio messages from Iran\u2019s navy saying no ships were allowed through the waterway, reversing Friday\u2019s signs that traffic might resume.<\/p>\n

Maritime trackers had earlier shown a convoy of eight tankers transiting the narrow passage in the first major movement of ships since the US-Israeli war on Iran began \u2060seven weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, Trump had cited \u201csome pretty good news\u201d about Iran, declining to elaborate. But he also \u200bsaid fighting might resume without a peace deal by Wednesday, when the two-week ceasefire expires.<\/p>\n

Iran had announced its temporary reopening \u200bof the Strait of Hormuz following a separate US-brokered 10-day ceasefire agreement on Thursday between Israel and Lebanon. Israel invaded parts of southern Lebanon after the Iran-allied Hizbullah militant group joined the fighting in early March.<\/p>\n

But on Saturday Iran\u2019s armed forces command said \u200ctransit through the strait had reverted to a state of strict Iranian military control, citing \u200bwhat it described as repeated US violations and acts of \u201cpiracy\u201d under the guise of a blockade.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said Iran had earlier agreed, \u201cin good faith,\u201d to the managed passage of a limited number of oil tankers and commercial vessels \u2060following negotiations, but said continued US actions had forced Tehran to restore tighter controls on shipping through \u2060the strategic chokepoint.<\/p>\n

US Central Command said in a statement that \u200bAmerican forces were enforcing a maritime blockade of Iran, but did not comment on the latest Iranian actions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a French soldier was killed and three others wounded while clearing a road in southern Lebanon in an \u200cattack that UNIFIL peacekeepers and French officials said on Saturday was likely carried out by Iran-backed Hizubllah. <\/p>\n

In calls with Lebanese president Joseph \u200bAoun and prime minister Nawaf Salam, French president Emmanuel Macron condemned the \u201cunacceptable attack\u201d, his office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Three other members of the United Nations\u2019 UNIFIL peacekeeping mission were injured, UNIFIL said, two of them seriously.<\/p>\n

The war with Iran began on February 28th with a US-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic. It has killed thousands, spread to Israeli attacks in Lebanon and sent oil prices surging because of the de facto closure of the strait.<\/p>\n

Despite the initial movement of ships, Iran\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said no date had been set for the next round of negotiations, adding that a framework of understanding must be agreed first.<\/p>\n

Pressure for a way out of the war has mounted as Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections with US gasoline prices high, inflation rising and his own approval ratings down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, and that supersedes everything else,\u201d Trump said on Friday.<\/p>\n

Trump also said he might end the ceasefire with Iran unless a long-term deal to end the war was agreed before it expires on Wednesday, adding that \u200ca US blockade of Iranian ports would continue.<\/p>\n

There were \u2060no signs of preparations early on Saturday for talks in the Pakistani capital, where the highest-level US-Iran negotiations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ended without agreement last weekend.<\/p>\n

A Pakistani source aware of mediation efforts had said a meeting between Iran and the US could produce an initial memorandum of understanding, followed by a comprehensive peace agreement within 60 days.<\/p>\n

Separately, a senior Iranian official said Tehran hoped a preliminary agreement could be \u200creached in the coming days.<\/p>\n

The head of Russia\u2019s state atomic energy company, Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, said on Saturday that Rosatom was ready to help with the removal of enriched uranium from Iran, and that the company was closely following the progress of US-Iran talks. \u2013 Reuters <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran said it was tightening control over the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, warning mariners the vital energy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,9146,42,11829,150432,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-406130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406130","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=406130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}