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Middle East crisis live: US blockade of Iran’s ports to begin later today as Trump says he doesn’t care about further talks | US-Israel war on Iran
Interim summary
If you’re just tuning in to today’s live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran, here’s the latest to bring you up to speed. It’s 9.30am in Tehran, 9am in Tel Aviv and Beirut and 2am in Washington DC.
Donald Trump has said he doesn’t care if Iran comes back to negotiations with the US after the weekend talks in Pakistan ended without a deal. “I don’t care if they come back or not,” Trump told reporters in Maryland on Sunday. “If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”
Trump said earlier that the US Navy would start blockading the Hormuz strait and also prohibit every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran. US Central Command said later it would begin a blockade of all Iranian Gulf ports and coastal areas on Monday at 10am ET (5.30pm in Iran and 1400 GMT), effectively seizing control of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that “approaching military vessels to the strait of Hormuz is considered a violation of the ceasefire”.
Oil prices rose in early market trading after Trump’s blockade announcement. The price of US crude oil rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel and Brent crude oil – the international standard – rose 7% to $102.29. Australia’s share market dropped sharply on Monday morning.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf taunted Trump on X, saying in a post: “Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called ‘blockade’, Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.” Earlier he said Trump’s new threats would have no effect on the Iranian nation: “If you fight, we will fight … We will not bow to any threats.”
Trump and his advisers are looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran in addition to the US blockade of the Hormuz strait, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing officials and people familiar with the situation.
Trump launched a scathing attack on Pope Leo XIV, saying he was “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”, was catering to the left and was “hurting the Catholic church”. Leo should “focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician”, the president said on Truth Social. The attack came after Leo denounced a “delusion of omnipotence” as fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran and urged political leaders to stop and negotiate peace.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “all traffic” through the strait of Hormuz stopped after Trump announced the US naval blockade. It said two vessels that were leaving the strait turned around after the post.
Trump’s threatened blockade could boost oil prices by $5 to $10 a barrel, estimates Michael Lynch, a distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation.
More than 32 million people worldwide could be plunged into poverty by the economic fallout from the Iran war, with developing countries expected to be hit hardest. The UN Development Programme said in a report that the world was facing a “triple shock” involving energy, food and weaker economic growth, reports Richard Partington.
Trump reiterated his threat to destroy Iran’s power plants and other civilian energy infrastructure if no deal was reached to end the war.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said negotiations to stop the war should resume quickly, as the country called for the full reopening of the Hormuz strait and free navigation for all nations.
Key events
Donald Trump launches extraordinary attack on Pope Leo calling him ‘weak’ and ‘terrible’
President Donald Trump has delivered an extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo XIV, saying he didn’t think the US-born leader of the Catholic church was “doing a very good job” and that he was “a very liberal person”, while also suggesting the pontiff should “stop catering to the Radical Left”.
Flying back to Washington from Florida on Sunday night, Trump used a lengthy social media post to sharply criticise Leo, then kept it up in comments on the tarmac to reporters.
“I’m not a fan of Pope Leo,” he said.
Trump’s comments came after Leo suggested over the weekend that a “delusion of omnipotence” was fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran. While it’s not unusual for popes and presidents to be at cross-purposes, it’s exceedingly rare for the pope to criticise a US leader – and Trump’s stinging response is equally uncommon.
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post, adding: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
You can read our full report here:
Oil price rises back over $100 a barrel after Trump announces naval blockade of strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump’s threat to impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz has driven the oil price back over $100 a barrel again, as hopes of an end to the conflict soon take another knock.
My colleagues on the business desk are covering the impact over in our business live blog.
You can read their coverage here:
We also have this explainer here:
Interim summary
If you’re just tuning in to today’s live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran, here’s the latest to bring you up to speed. It’s 9.30am in Tehran, 9am in Tel Aviv and Beirut and 2am in Washington DC.
Donald Trump has said he doesn’t care if Iran comes back to negotiations with the US after the weekend talks in Pakistan ended without a deal. “I don’t care if they come back or not,” Trump told reporters in Maryland on Sunday. “If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”
Trump said earlier that the US Navy would start blockading the Hormuz strait and also prohibit every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran. US Central Command said later it would begin a blockade of all Iranian Gulf ports and coastal areas on Monday at 10am ET (5.30pm in Iran and 1400 GMT), effectively seizing control of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that “approaching military vessels to the strait of Hormuz is considered a violation of the ceasefire”.
Oil prices rose in early market trading after Trump’s blockade announcement. The price of US crude oil rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel and Brent crude oil – the international standard – rose 7% to $102.29. Australia’s share market dropped sharply on Monday morning.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf taunted Trump on X, saying in a post: “Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called ‘blockade’, Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.” Earlier he said Trump’s new threats would have no effect on the Iranian nation: “If you fight, we will fight … We will not bow to any threats.”
Trump and his advisers are looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran in addition to the US blockade of the Hormuz strait, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing officials and people familiar with the situation.
Trump launched a scathing attack on Pope Leo XIV, saying he was “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”, was catering to the left and was “hurting the Catholic church”. Leo should “focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician”, the president said on Truth Social. The attack came after Leo denounced a “delusion of omnipotence” as fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran and urged political leaders to stop and negotiate peace.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “all traffic” through the strait of Hormuz stopped after Trump announced the US naval blockade. It said two vessels that were leaving the strait turned around after the post.
Trump’s threatened blockade could boost oil prices by $5 to $10 a barrel, estimates Michael Lynch, a distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation.
More than 32 million people worldwide could be plunged into poverty by the economic fallout from the Iran war, with developing countries expected to be hit hardest. The UN Development Programme said in a report that the world was facing a “triple shock” involving energy, food and weaker economic growth, reports Richard Partington.
Trump reiterated his threat to destroy Iran’s power plants and other civilian energy infrastructure if no deal was reached to end the war.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said negotiations to stop the war should resume quickly, as the country called for the full reopening of the Hormuz strait and free navigation for all nations.
Here are some of the latest images coming in from the Middle East amid the countdown to the US naval blockade on Monday.
Circling back to Donald Trump’s coming naval blockade, the US military said it would block all Iranian Gulf ports on Monday at 10am ET on Monday (5.30pm in Iran and 1400 GMT), effectively seizing control of maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz.
“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” US Central Command said on X.
The US would “not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports”, it added.
The move was a step back from Trump’s original vow to entirely blockade the strait, with early reports indicating ships had stopped crossing the waterway.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Iranian security forces had full control over the Strait of Hormuz and warned enemies would be trapped in a “deadly vortex” in case of any “wrong move”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Iran’s navy chief, Shahram Irani, called Trump’s threat “ridiculous and funny”, according to state TV, adding the country’s military was “monitoring and supervising all the movements” of the US army in the region.
The failure of negotiations to end the US-Israeli war against Iran has unleashed a barrage of starkly partisan political responses in the US, with leading Republicans calling for Donald Trump to “finish the job” while top Democrats warned that it would be disastrous for the president to resume hostilities.
The former UN ambassador during Trump’s first presidency, Nikki Haley, led the Republican charge, telling CNN on Sunday that the current two-week ceasefire was a test of nerves. She said:
This is like a game of chicken. It’s who caves first. The Iranian regime is hoping that Trump will cave. Today, he showed he’s not.”
She said the US could launch a relatively quick special forces operation to seize Iran’s stash of enriched uranium in order to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons.
Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate’s intelligence committee, fiercely rebutted Haley, telling CNN that attempting to seize Iran’s 1,000lb [454kg] canisters of highly volatile enriched uranium would be “very, very dangerous”.
It would take 10,000 troops on the ground guarding a perimeter. We’d have to send special operators in, and the Iranians could then bomb their own facility, potentially trapping our troops.”
Meanwhile, as well as announcing a blockade of the strait of Hormuz, Trump threatened to bomb Iran’s water treatment facilities and its power plants and bridges – repeating an earlier threat – if Tehran did not agree to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
There’s more on this and the day’s other key Trump administration stories here:
Tom McIlroy
Australia’s prime minister says peace negotiations to end the growing Middle East war should resume quickly, as the country called for the full reopening of the strait of Hormuz and free navigation for all nations.
Hours after Donald Trump said he would institute a US blockade of the strategic waterway, Anthony Albanese urged Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations in Pakistan.
The PM said:
We want to see the strait of Hormuz opened and with freedom of navigation taking place, so obviously, the lack of a resolution in the negotiations that took place on the weekend were disappointing.
We want to see de-escalation and we want to see those negotiations resumed.”
Navy chief V Adm Mark Hammond, who has been named the Australian defence forces’ new chief starting from July, said Australian forces would be ready to contributing to an international effort to reopen the strait, if the government made a decision to assist.
“The navy is ready as it ever has been,” Hammond said.
The navy’s major combatant ships were “fitted with one of the most advanced radars in the world … and some of the most advanced missile-engagement systems in the world”.
Trump has name-checked Australia as among countries not assisting with the US war effort, even as he insisted no help was required.
Albanese stressed the Australian government’s view was that the ceasefire should extend to Israel’s fighting with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.
Iran war could plunge 32 million into poverty, says UN
More than 32 million people worldwide could be plunged into poverty by the economic fallout from the Iran war, with developing countries expected to be hit hardest.
In a report issued amid doubts over a fragile ceasefire, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said the world was facing a “triple shock” involving energy, food and weaker economic growth, reports the Guardian’s Richard Partington.
The agency tasked with tackling poverty said the conflict was reversing gains in international development, with the impact expected be felt unevenly across regions.
Alexander De Croo, administrator of the UNDP and former prime minister of Belgium, said:
A conflict like this is development in reverse. Even if the war stops, and a ceasefire is obviously very very welcome, but the impact is already there.
You will see an enduring impact, especially in the poorer countries, where you push people back into poverty.”
Energy prices have surged since the first US-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, and Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz has choked global oil and gas supplies to the world economy. With a knock-on impact on fertiliser supplies and global shipping, experts warn that a “food security timebomb” has been set for the developing world.
See the full report here:
Strait of Hormuz blockade explained: why is Trump threatening it now and how will it work?
Reports indicate that the reopening of the strait was one of the major sticking points in the weekend negotiations between the US and Iran. Tehran has indicated it would like to retain control of the waterway after the war has finished, and has floated a plan to charge a fee of up to $2m a ship to transit through the waterway. Donald Trump and other world leaders have rejected such a plan as an attack on “freedom of navigation”.
Despite the US president’s claims that reopening the waterway is not his responsibility, he is under pressure to resolve the issue before the continued closure of the strait unleashes an even greater crisis for the global economy.
If Trump’s strategy succeeds, he will eliminate Iran’s greatest point of leverage in negotiations and clear the strait again for global trade, potentially lowering oil prices.
The US military has not offered many details yet, including how many warships will enforce it, whether warplanes will be used and whether any Gulf allies will assist in the effort.
Experts say it’s unlikely the US military will fire missiles or other weapons at vessels, given the risk of an environmental disaster. The most likely option is the US navy will try to force them to change course through threats – and if that doesn’t work, they will launch armed boarding parties to take physical control of the ships, experts say.
“Trump wants a quick fix,” says Dana Stroul, a former senior Pentagon official during the Biden administration and now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The reality is, this mission is difficult to execute alone and likely unsustainable over the medium to long-term.”
Donald Trump’s threatened blockade could boost oil prices by $5 to $10 a barrel, estimates Michael Lynch, a distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation.
The blockade would take an estimated 2m barrels of oil per day off the market, and the Iran war had already taken roughly 10m barrels a day out of supply, Lynch said.
This is a pretty big insult to a pretty big injury, I guess, is the way to put it.”
But Lynch said the blockade might be short-lived as Trump would be pressured to walk it back.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see him to give it up by midweek, especially if oil prices keep going up.”
Brent crude oil – the international standard – has gone from roughly $70 a barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence has said “all traffic” through the strait of Hormuz stopped after Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the US would blockade the waterway. It said two vessels that were leaving the strait turned around after the post.
A trickle of traffic had returned to the strait in the days since the US and Iran agreed to pause the conflict. Three supertankers fully laden with oil passed through the strait on Saturday, shipping data showed. In normal times up to 140 vessels transit through the waterway.
Trump: ‘I don’t care’ if Iran doesn’t return to negotiations
Donald Trump has said he doesn’t care if Iran comes back to negotiations with the US after the weekend talks in Pakistan ended without a deal.
“I don’t care if they come back or not,” Trump was quoted as telling reporters on Sunday at Joint Base Andrews military base in Maryland on his return from Florida.
If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”
More here on Donald Trump tearing into Pope Leo XIV, branding him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” and claiming he is hurting the Catholic church.
The US president also posted on his Truth Social platform that it was only because he was president that the US-born Leo became pope.
I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t!
Trump also said in his post:
Unfortunately, Leo’s Weak on Crime, Weak on Nuclear Weapons, does not sit well with me…
Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!
Trump’s attack came after the pontiff denounced a “delusion of omnipotence” as fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran and urged political leaders to stop and negotiate peace.
Leo also presided over an evening prayer service in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday as the US-Iran talks began in Pakistan amid the fragile ceasefire, the Associated Press reports
The pope didn’t mention the US or Trump by name in his prayer but the pontiff’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and US officials, who have boasted of US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
Trump spoke to reporters in Maryland soon after his social media post and said: “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job,” adding that “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo”.
Opening summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and its consequences for the wider region, the world and the global economy.
Here are the main developments:
Trump said the US Navy would start blockading the Hormuz strait and would also interdict every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran. In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, the president said the US was going to start “BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz”.
In another post Trump also claimed Iran had “knowingly failed” to make good on its promise to open the strait, causing “anxiety” and “pain” for many countries around the world.
US Central Command (Centcom) announced it would begin its blockade of the strait beginning Monday morning. “Centcom forces will begin implementing a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on April 13 at 10am ET [1400 GMT], in accordance with the president’s proclamation.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned that “approaching military vessels to the strait of Hormuz is considered a violation of the ceasefire”.
Oil prices rose in early market trading after Trump’s blockade announcement. The price of US crude oil rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel and Brent crude oil – the international standard – rose 7% to $102.29. Australia’s share market dropped sharply on Monday morning.
Donald Trump and his advisers are looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran in addition to the US blockade of the strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing officials and people familiar with the situation.
Trump launched a scathing attack on Pope Leo XIV, saying he was “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” and was hurting the Catholic church. “Leo should get his act together as Pope,” the president said on Truth Social. The attack came after Leo denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” as fuelling the US-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said his government had not been asked to participate in any US blockade of the strait of Hormuz and that he wanted to see negotiations between the US and Iran continue.
Trump reiterated his threat to destroy Iran’s power plants and other civilian energy infrastructure if no deal was reached to end the war, which he started with Israel in what is widely seen as an illegal and unprovoked attack. “I could take out Iran in one day,” he told Fox News on Sunday.
Trump also said the US didn’t need the strait. “We don’t get our oil from there. We have so much oil,” he told Fox. “We have boats pouring up to the United States … We don’t need the strait.”
Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Tehran side in the US talks, said Trump’s new threats would have no effect on the Iranian nation. “If you fight, we will fight, and if you come forward with logic, we will deal with logic. We will not bow to any threats.” He later taunted Trump on X, posting: “Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called ‘blockade’, Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.”
