Washington: The standoff between the United States and Iran deepened on Tuesday as Washington declared it had blockaded Iran’s ports, Tehran threatened to strike targets across the region, and Pakistan said it was racing to bring both sides back to the negotiating table.
Although last week’s ceasefire appeared to be holding, tensions over the Strait of Hormuz risked reigniting hostilities and worsening the conflict’s economic fallout across the region.
Talks aimed at permanently ending the conflict — which began on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes on Iran — failed to produce an agreement last weekend. However, Pakistan has proposed hosting a second round of negotiations in the coming days.
Two Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly, said the initial talks were part of an ongoing diplomatic process rather than a one-off effort.
Two US officials, also speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the negotiations, said on Monday that discussions were continuing on a new round of talks. They said the venue, timing and composition of the delegations had yet to be decided, adding that talks could take place as early as Thursday.
The war, now in its seventh week, has jolted financial markets and shaken the global economy, with shipping heavily disrupted and air strikes causing widespread damage to military and civilian infrastructure across the region.
The US military said on Monday that the blockade applies to vessels travelling to and from Iranian ports. The measures could restrict the limited number of ships Tehran considers friendly, which have been allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz after Iran curtailed maritime traffic at the start of the war.
Most commercial vessels have avoided the waterway amid Iranian threats, aside from a small number permitted to pass through designated lanes between Iran’s islands and coastline.
The scope of enforcement and the extent to which vessels will comply remained unclear during the blockade’s first full day on Tuesday. Early signs of hesitation emerged, however, with at least two tankers approaching the strait on Monday turning around shortly after the blockade took effect, according to vessel tracker MarineTraffic.
Iran’s effective closure of the strait — through which around a fifth of global oil flows in peacetime — has sent oil prices soaring, driving up the cost of petrol, food and other basic goods well beyond the Middle East.
Former US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran’s control of the strait amounted to blackmail and extortion as the blockade came into force. In a social media post, he claimed Iran’s navy had been “completely obliterated” but still retained “fast attack ships”.
He warned that “if any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED”.
Iran, meanwhile, threatened retaliation against ports in the Arabian Gulf if attacked.
“If you fight, we will fight,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said in a statement addressed to Trump.
Separately, direct talks between Israel and Lebanon were due to begin in Washington on Tuesday, marking the first such negotiations in decades.