Trump’s Ineffective Blockade: Vessel Skirts Restrictions as Talks with Iran Resume

(SeaPRwire) –   Tensions between the United States and Iran escalated Tuesday after the U.S. announced it had blockaded Iran’s ports, Tehran threatened to strike targets across the region, and Pakistan stated it was working urgently to bring the two sides together for additional talks.

Though last week’s ceasefire appeared to be holding, the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz carried a risk of reigniting hostilities and worsening the economic fallout of the region-wide war.

Negotiations aimed at permanently ending the conflict — which began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran — failed to reach an agreement last weekend, though Pakistan has proposed hosting a second round of talks in the coming days.

Two Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to address the matter with media, said the first round of talks was part of a continuing diplomatic process rather than a one-time effort.

Two U.S. officials, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations, said Monday that internal discussions about a new round of talks were still ongoing. They noted the venue, timing and composition of delegations had not been finalized, but talks could take place as early as Thursday.

The war, now in its seventh week, has jolted global markets and shaken the world economy, after large volumes of shipping were halted and airstrikes have destroyed military and civilian infrastructure across the region.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,000 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also died in the conflict.

Tanker reported rounding the corner

The blockade is designed to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began. Most of these exports are believed to be carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, generating critical cash flow to keep Iran operating.

Both how the blockade would be enforced and the level of compliance from ships remained unclear during its first full day in effect Tuesday. Tankers approaching the strait on Monday turned around shortly after the blockade took effect, though one vessel reversed course and transited the waterway early Tuesday.

The tanker Rich Starry had been waiting off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to shipping data firm Lloyd’s List, which cited data from energy cargo-tracking firm Vortexa. It was not immediately clear whether the Rich Starry had previously docked in Iran. But the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control lists the vessel as linked to Iranian shipping.

Lloyd’s List, citing ship registry and tracking data, reported the tanker is owned by a Chinese shipping company and is ultimately bound for China.

U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to questions about the vessel after it cleared the 21-mile-wide (nearly 34-kilometer) waterway. A day earlier, the command stated that the blockade applies to all vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports.

Since the start of the war, Iran has restricted maritime traffic, with most commercial vessels choosing to avoid the waterway.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait — through which one-fifth of global oil shipments pass in peacetime — has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Iran’s control of the strait amounted to blackmail and extortion as the U.S. blockade went into effect. He wrote in a social media post that Iran’s navy had been “completely obliterated,” but still maintained “fast attack ships.”

He warned that “if any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.”

Iran has threatened to retaliate against Persian Gulf ports if it is attacked.

“If you fight, we will fight,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a statement addressed to Trump.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will co-chair a conference Friday for nations willing to deploy warships to escort oil tankers and container ships through the Strait of Hormuz. The deployment will go forward “when security conditions allow,” Macron’s office said Tuesday.

Israel and Lebanon scheduled for talks

Meanwhile, direct talks between Israel and Lebanon were set to get underway in Washington on Tuesday, the first such negotiations between the two sides in decades.

Israel has continued its air and ground campaign following last week’s ceasefire in Iran, insisting the ceasefire does not apply to fighting in Lebanon. It has, however, halted strikes in Lebanon’s capital since April 8, after a deadly bombardment hit multiple crowded commercial and residential areas in central Beirut. The attack sparked international outcry and threats from Iran that it would end the ceasefire.

After more than a year of near-daily strikes in southern Lebanon, Israel escalated its offensive in the early days of the current war after Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel. According to Lebanese authorities, the fighting has left a trail of destruction from agricultural towns near the border all the way to Beirut, killing more than 2,000 people and displacing over 1 million others.

The talks are expected to be preliminary, focused on setting ground rules rather than resolving core issues. Lebanese officials have pushed for a ceasefire, while Israel has framed the negotiations around Hezbollah’s disarmament and a potential peace deal, without publicly committing to halting hostilities or withdrawing its forces.

Israel wants Lebanon’s government to take responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, aligned with the framework laid out in a November 2024 ceasefire. But the militant group has survived decades of efforts to curb its power, and said Monday that it will not abide by any agreements that come out of the talks.

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Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations contributed to this report.