Iran reimposes 'strict management' of Hormuz; Trump warns against 'blackmail'

TEHRAN: Iran's military declared the resumption of "strict management" of Strait of Hormuz again on Saturday (Apr 18), but US President Donald Trump said Tehran could not blackmail the United States by shutting the waterway.

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 said Iran's navy was ready to inflict "new bitter defeats" on its enemies.

Trump on Saturday warned Iran not to "blackmail" Washington with its flip-flopping on the fate of the Strait of Hormuz.

"We're talking to them. They wanted to close up the strait again - you know, as they've been doing for years - and they can't blackmail us," Trump said at a White House event.

Trump said there would be "some information" about Iran later in the day, adding: "We're taking a tough stand."

The toing and froing over the strait cast doubt on Trump's optimism the day before, that a peace deal to end the US-Israeli war with Iran was "very close".

Iran's top national security body said Saturday that the country was reviewing "new proposals" received from the US, even as it warned that its negotiators would cut no compromises with Washington.

"In recent days, with the presence of the commander of the Pakistani army in Tehran as an intermediary and mediator in the negotiations, new proposals have been put forward by the Americans, which the Islamic Republic of Iran is currently reviewing and has not yet responded to," the Supreme National Security Council said in a statement.

It went on to say that Iran's negotiating delegation "will not make even the slightest compromise, retreat or leniency, and will defend with all its strength the interests of the Iranian nation".

Iranian gunboats fired on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, a British maritime security agency reported following Iran's announcement. The tanker's captain reported being approached 37km northeast of Oman by two gunboats of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corp. 

Without any radio warning, the gunboats "then fired upon the tanker", the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said in an online statement. "Tanker and crew are reported safe. Authorities are investigating."

IRAN NAVY READY TO DEFEAT US FORCES: KHAMENEI

A statement said to have been issued by Khamenei warned Saturday that Tehran's navy was ready to defeat US forces, as the foes sparred over the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement carried on his Telegram channel, Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since before the start of the war, said Iran's "brave navy stands ready to make the enemies taste the bitterness of new defeats".

Meanwhile, Iran's deputy foreign minister said on Saturday that no date has been set for the next round of Iran-US peace talks brokered by Pakistan following the failure of the first one.

"Until we agree on the framework, we cannot set the date," Saeed Khatibzadeh told journalists on the sidelines of an annual Turkish diplomatic forum in the southern province of Antalya.

"Now we are focusing on finalising the framework of understanding between two sides. We don't want to enter into any negotiation or meeting which is due to failure which can be pretext for another round of escalation," he said. 

"The American side tweets a lot, talks a lot. Sometimes confusing, sometimes, you know, contradictory," he added, after Washington threatened fresh strikes if no deal was reached with Tehran.

Tehran had on Friday declared the strait, which usually carries a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas, open on Friday after a ceasefire was agreed in Lebanon to halt Israel's war with Hezbollah.

That prompted elation in global markets and sent oil prices plunging, but with Trump insisting that a US naval blockade of Iranian ports would continue until a deal was concluded, Tehran threatened to shutter the strait once more.

Then, late on Saturday morning, citing a statement from military central command, Iranian state TV reported that "control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous status" and "is under strict management and control of the armed forces", blaming the continued US blockade.

The announcement came as maritime tracking sites showed several ships making a dash through the narrow waterway, hugging close to Iranian territorial waters as instructed by Tehran and, for some, broadcasting their identity as Indian or Chinese in an apparent attempt to show their neutrality.

The same sites showed that late on Friday, a number of ships began heading for the strait before suddenly turning back amid the uncertainty.

By 9am GMT on Saturday, several ships had fully transited the strait in both directions, but at least two tankers headed eastwards from the Gulf towards India after loading in UAE ports appeared to have turned around and aborted their journeys.

"WE'RE GOING TO GET IT"

There are just four days remaining before the end of the two-week ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, launched by Washington and its ally on Feb 28.

No date has been set for the next round of Iran-US peace talks brokered by Pakistan following the failure of the first one, Iran's deputy foreign minister said on Saturday.

Nevertheless, President Trump appeared convinced that a deal could be finished shortly.

He declared Friday "GREAT AND BRILLIANT", and made a series of social media posts praising talks mediator Pakistan.

Islamabad's powerful military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, on Saturday finished a three-day visit to Iran aimed at securing the peace deal, during which he met Iran's top leadership.

While Munir was in Iran, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye to push the peace process.

Islamabad has emerged as the lead mediator during the conflict, hosting a marathon round of direct peace talks last weekend attended by US Vice President JD Vance.

A second round of talks is expected in the Pakistani capital this coming week, with envoys hoping to end the war that was started by the US and Israel on Feb 28.

The allies launched a massive wave of surprise attacks on Iran, despite Washington and Tehran being engaged in diplomatic talks, that killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and numerous senior leaders.

The war rapidly spread across the region, with Iran targeting US interests in the Gulf and Hezbollah dragging Lebanon into the conflict by launching rockets at Israel.

In a sign that the two-week ceasefire remained stable, Iran's civil aviation agency declared its airspace was open again, with international flights able to transit Iran via the east of the country.

Nevertheless, two major sticking points in the peace talks - Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium and the future of the Strait of Hormuz - appeared up in the air.

Speaking by phone with AFP on Friday, Trump said "we're very close to having a deal", adding that there were "no sticking points at all" left with Tehran.

Later the same day, at an event in Arizona, the president declared that Iran had agreed to hand over its 440kg or so of uranium enriched to 60 per cent - close to that needed for a bomb.

"We're going to get it by going in with Iran, with lots of excavators," he said.

But hours before, Iran's foreign ministry had said its stockpile, thought to be buried deep under rubble by US bombing in last June's 12-day war, was not going anywhere.

"Iran's enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state TV.

"Transfer of Iran's enriched uranium to the US has never been raised in negotiations."

Ordinary Iranians, meanwhile, remained cut off from the international internet, with monitor netblocks announcing on Saturday that the blackout implemented at the start of the war had reached its 50th day.