{"id":394606,"date":"2026-04-16T04:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/394606\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:02:10","slug":"middle-east-war-live-iran-threatens-to-disrupt-gulf-trade-in-response-to-us-naval-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/394606\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East war live: Iran threatens to disrupt Gulf trade in response to US naval blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n Middle East
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Live<\/p>\n

Issued on: 16\/04\/2026 – 04:16Modified: 16\/04\/2026 – 04:31<\/p>\n

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A cargo ship is pictured off coast city of Fujairah, in the Strait of Hormuz in the northern Emirate on February 25, 2026 \u00a9 Giuseppe Cacace, AFP archives <\/p>\n

\n The leader of\u00a0Iran\u2019s joint military command threatened Wednesday to halt trade in the Gulf region if the US does not lift its blockade of Iranian ports. Even so, US President Donald Trump said the war in\u00a0Iran\u00a0was \u201cvery close to over\u201d in an interview that aired Wednesday. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates. <\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

16\/04\/2026 – 04:31Iran war brings US close to net crude exporter for first time since World War Two<\/p>\n

The US nearly turned into a net crude exporter last \u200bweek for the first time since World War Two as shipments surged close to a record high to meet demand from Asian and European buyers scrambling to replace Middle East supplies cut by the Iran war.<\/p>\n

16\/04\/2026 – 04:08Iran arrests four alleged Israeli spies, says state media<\/p>\n

Iran arrested four suspected Israeli spies, state media reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n

It came as US officials discuss possible peace talks with Iran after US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28 engulfed the Middle East in war.<\/p>\n

“The four agents linked to the Mossad were apprehended in Gilan governorate” in northern Iran, IRNA reported, citing a statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.<\/p>\n

The Mossad is Israel’s foreign intelligence agency.<\/p>\n

“The arrestees had provided Mossad intelligence officers with images and locations of some sensitive and critical military and security sites via the internet”, it said.<\/p>\n

16\/04\/2026 – 03:39Iran participating in World Cup, FIFA president confirms<\/p>\n

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Wednesday that\u00a0Iran\u00a0will “for sure” participate in the 2026 World Cup despite the Middle East war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Iran\u00a0is coming for sure. We hope that by then the situation will be a peaceful situation, that would definitely help,” Infantino said on broadcaster CNBC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But\u00a0Iran\u00a0has to come, they represent their people, they have qualified, the players want to play,” he said of the team’s upcoming matches scheduled in the United States in June.<\/p>\n

16\/04\/2026 – 03:39Iran threatens to disrupt Gulf trade in response to US naval blockade<\/p>\n

The leader of Iran\u2019s joint military command threatened Wednesday to halt trade in the Gulf region if the US does not lift its blockade of Iranian ports. Even so, US President Donald Trump said the war in Iran was \u201cvery close to over\u201d in an interview that aired Wednesday.<\/p>\n

16\/04\/2026 – 03:38China urges restoration of normal navigation in Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n

China’s \u2060Foreign Minister Wang \u200bYi urged his Iranian counterpart \u200bAbbas Araqchi to make efforts to restore normal navigation in the Strait of Hormuz \u200bin a \u200cphone call on \u2060Wednesday, according to a Chinese foreign<\/p>\n

ministry statement.<\/p>\n

\u200cWang said while\u00a0Iran’s sovereignty and \u2060security in the Strait of Hormuz should be respected and safeguarded, \u200bfreedom and safety of navigation through \u200cthe waterway should also be guaranteed.<\/p>\n

The United States on Wednesday threatened to sanction buyers of Iranian oil and \u200bsaid it believed \u200cChina would pause such purchases as Washington enforces a maritime blockade on \u2060Iran. US President Donald Trump<\/a> would “welcome” an end to the conflict between Israel<\/a> and Hezbollah<\/a> in Lebanon, but such an agreement is not part of peace talks<\/a> with Iran<\/a>, a senior US administration official said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> said the country’s top priority was to secure the “dismantling” of Hezbollah in its first direct talks with Lebanon<\/a> in decades.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home Middle East Live Issued on: 16\/04\/2026 – 04:16Modified: 16\/04\/2026 – 04:31 A cargo ship is pictured off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,87,117780,46,88,47,2899,22649,43,114994,40,38,41,39,48717,2586],"class_list":{"0":"post-394606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iran-war","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-lebanon","13":"tag-middle-east","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-navy","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-us-military","23":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}