The US military said no vessel passed the Strait of Hormuz during the first 24 hours of the US naval blockade targeting vessels travelling to or from Iran.
“During the first 24 hours, no vessel passed the US blockade, and six merchant vessels complied with US forces’ instructions to turn around and return to an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman,” the US Central Command, which is responsible for operations in the region, said in a statement to X.
The blockade is applied impartially against vessels from all countries that enter or leave Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” the command said. – U.S. military forces maintain freedom of navigation for vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports
Meanwhile, data from vessel tracking services indicated at least four vessels, two of them recent arrivals at Iranian ports, had passed or were passing through the Strait of Hormuz within hours of the blockade taking effect. A Liberian-flagged vessel carrying corn to Iran’s Bandar Imam Khomeini port passed through Iran’s Larak Island in the strait a few hours afterwards, while a Comoros-flagged tanker carrying methanol that left Iran’s Bushehr port on 31 March left the strait around the same time, AFP news agency reported, citing Kpler data.
Also citing tracking services, Reuters separately reported that the three Iranian-linked vessels that passed through the strait were not bound for Iranian ports and were not affected by the blockade. Two of the three vessels are under U.S. sanctions and one of those two is owned by China, Reuters reported.
US President Donald Trump ordered the blockade after US-Iranian peace talks in Islamabad on 11-12 April failed to produce an agreement to end the war, which began with US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran on 28 February. Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on the night of 8 April.
On 14 April, Trump conceded that talks could resume in Islamabad within the next few days.