U.S. blockade has turned back six ships leaving Strait of Hormuz

U.S. warships confronted six merchant vessels seen departing an Iranian port, forcing them all to turn back, in the opening hours of the Trump administration’s bid to counter Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, military officials said Tuesday.

The U.S. blockade, which took effect Monday amid a shaky ceasefire between the United States and Iran, involves 10,000 American troops, more than a dozen Navy ships positioned in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and an array of fighter jets and drones to surveil commercial vessels in the area, U.S. Central Command said in a post on social media.

Before the U.S. and Israel began the war against Iran, and Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation, about 20 percent of global oil supply — roughly 20 million barrels of oil — and 20 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade passed through the strait daily. A global spike in gas prices has increased pressure on the Trump administration to find a resolution to the conflict, but negotiations over the weekend in Pakistan concluded without an agreement.

To execute the blockade, two U.S. officials said, American naval assets are not lingering near Iranian ports or in the Strait of Hormuz itself. Iranian forces mined the strait, one of several flash points in negotiations, soon after hostilities began more than six weeks ago. The narrow, shallow corridor also leaves any vessels there vulnerable to attack.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details about the operation that have not been made public.

“Our net is the Gulf of Oman,” said one of the officials, who explained that the U.S. warships involved wait for an opportune moment — after observing vessels leave Iranian facilities and clear the strait — before intercepting the merchant ships and forcing them to turn around.

“There’s one way in and one way out,” the official said. “We’ve got the whole thing on lockdown.”

None of the six encounters required escalation by U.S. forces to compel the ships to turn around, both officials said.

The blockade affects only those ships that were either still in an Iranian port, or pulled into one, after 10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, one of the officials said.

Iranian Press TV reported earlier Tuesday that two ships that had been in Iranian ports had passed through the blockade — but in both cases, the ships had departed before the U.S.-imposed deadline, according to ship tracking data cited by the network.

U.S. warships are not escorting the intercepted vessels back to the Iranian ports, both officials said. However U.S. forces “are supporting freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” Central Command said in its statement.

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