U.S. military threatens to blockade all Iranian ports starting Monday

Monday April 13, 2026

The United States military said on Sunday it would start blocking all Iranian ports on Monday, escalating its campaign against Tehran after marathon peace talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement.

In a late-evening statement, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the blockade would cover “all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports” beginning at 10am Eastern Time (14:00 GMT) on April 13. The order, it said, applies to “vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas”, including those in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

However, US forces “will not impede freedom of ⁠navigation for vessels transiting the Strait ⁠of Hormuz to and ⁠from non-Iranian ports,” CENTCOM said, a move that appeared to soften President Donald Trump’s earlier threat to close the entire strait and target ships paying tolls to Iran.

“There are a lot of questions here,” said Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro in Washington, DC, citing “conflicting information” from the US side.

“Trump said the blockade would target any and all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz. But CENTCOM is saying this would only target ships going to or from Iranian ports.”

Oil markets reacted quickly. US crude rose 8 percent to $104.24 a barrel after the blockade threat, while Brent crude, the global benchmark, climbed 7 percent to $102.29.

Iran has effectively asserted control over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial bottleneck for the world energy trade, since the US and Israel launched a war against the country on February 28. Since then, traffic through the waterway has slowed sharply, nearly halting about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

Iran has kept its own vessels moving through the strait and has allowed limited passage for ships from other countries. Iranian officials have also discussed introducing a toll system once the fighting ends.

Responding to Trump’s blockade threat, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that any military vessels approaching would violate a US-Iran ceasefire, which is supposed to remain in effect until April 22, and “will be dealt with severely”.

The US-declared blockade appears to follow the collapse of the talks in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, stoking fears that the conflict could flare again.

Iranian officials blamed Washington for the failure to strike a deal, with Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi saying US negotiators moved the “goalposts” and blocked progress when a memorandum of understanding was “just inches away”.

Zohreh Kharazmi, an associate professor at the University of Tehran, said the US “is not in a position to dictate” to Iranians how to behave, or “to choose which vessels may pass”.

“If this blockade becomes a contest between the resilience of the Islamic Republic and the resilience of global markets, it will not take long to see who is losing,” she said, adding that Iran “is ready for a prolonged war”.

“Technically, they [the US] cannot control the situation. With Hollywood-style strategies, they cannot prevail in this battleground.”