Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz Saturday, putting a delicate agreement with the US, which hinged on the immediate reopening of the vital waterway, in peril.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the sudden close of the strait was a result of renewed fighting in Lebanon despite a cease-fire between Israel and the terror group Hezbollah.
“It is hereby announced that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to vessel traffic; It is noted that this first step is a response to the enemy’s breach of promise, and if the aggression continues, further steps will be planned and taken to force the enemy to comply with its obligations,” the IRGC’s military headquarters warned in a statement on state TV.
Israeli airstrikes against what it said were Hezbollah targets in Lebanon killed at least 16 people Saturday, just hours after a new truce went into effect, according to Lebanese Civil Defense.
The Strait of Hormuz is closing again on Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced. ZUMAPRESS.com
There were 25 commercial ships that made it through the strait Thursday, a record since April but well below a pre-war average of 120, according to AXS Marine data.
Traffic was also reportedly flowing early Friday, prior to the skirmishes breaking out in Lebanon.
The IRGC threatened mariners later Friday, urging them not to enter the Strait of Hormuz because the US was in violation of Wednesday’s memorandum of understanding between President Trump and Iranian Preisdent Masoud Pezeshkian.
Israel said it struck Lebanon Saturday in response to projectiles fired by Hezbollah. One strike on a three-story building in the Tyre district killed a father, mother and two children, according to a town official.
The Israeli military said four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed overnight into Friday in an attack by the terror group in southern Lebanon, and five IDF soldiers were wounded hours later.
The US helped broker a truce that went into effect on Friday between Israel and the Iranian terror proxy, as the fighting became a major obstacle toward finalizing steps to end the war with Tehran.
Trump said he instructed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a cease-fire, saying: “You just gotta calm down sometimes and use your head,” he told NBC News.
There were 25 commercial ships that made it through the strait Thursday, a record since April but well below a pre-war average of 120, according to AXS Marine data. And traffic was also reportedly flowing early Friday, prior to the skirmishes breaking out in Lebanon.
Smoke rises in southern Lebanon following Israeli strike after a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Friday that Israel and Hezbollah were in a ceasefire. REUTERS
The MOU between Washing and Tehran stipulated that Iran would open the strait — which has been closed since the war broke out on Feb. 28 — in exchange for the US lifting its blockade on Iranian ports.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance told Fox & Friends Saturday morning that there was no evidence the strait was closed.
“We actually got 16 million barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, that is a record,” he said. “So you’re seeing those ships move.”
Vance also confirmed that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner were “on the ground” in Switzerland for technical talks as part of the next steps in the recently finalized memorandum of understanding between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime.
Witkoff and Kushner are expected to join Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Geneva.
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Vance said talks with Tehran could resume “as soon as tomorrow,” but added that “these things are always a little bit in flux.”
“The United States has all the cards,” he said.
After scrubbing a trip to Switzerland Thursday night, Vance said he planned to travel to Geneva “sometime in the next couple of days” for talks, but cited the “delicate coordination dance and the diplomatic protocols.”
Pakistani’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi remains in Switzerland with plans to liaise with Iranian officials. Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani of Qatar, a country that has served in a mediating role and holds frozen Iranian assets, is also there.
Switzerland’s foreign ministry said the luxurious Burgenstock resort above Lake Luzerne continues to be a “discreet and reliable setting” for talks.
Earlier Saturday, President Trump ripped into “radical Left fools and Dumocrats” as well as predecessors Barack “Obuma” and “Sleepy Joe Biden” over their handling of Iran, while defending his own pact with the Islamic Republic.
“They thought [Obama] was, like Sleepy Joe Biden, a weak and ineffective leader, and on this they were 100% correct,” he posted to Truth Social.
“Iran got away with ”murder” for 47 years, until I came along. Then it all changed.”