Iran doubles down on control of Strait of Hormuz after weekend of violence as shipping traffic plummets
Iran doubled down on its control of the Strait of Hormuz Sunday — declaring on state-run TV that all ships must get permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps before sailing through the critical choke point.The announcement followed Iranian attacks on two ships that were transiting the strait in recent days — prompting strikes by the US, and tit-for-tat retaliation by the Islamic republic.The violence threatened to unravel the delicate peace deal less than a week after the two sides met in Switzerland for talks on a permanent agreement.President Trump accused Iran of violating the cease-fire and warned the US could return to all-out war.The attacks also resulted in shipping traffic through Hormuz, which once carried 20% of the world’s oil, to grind to a halt.
Just 10 ships crossed on Saturday, compared with 40 to 50 earlier in the week.The IRGC has maintained that Iran will keep full control over the Strait of Hormuz.On Thursday it fired a drone on a Singapore-flagged cargo ship along the coast of Oman — after the vessel apparently used a route through the strait that avoided Iranian controlled waters.Iran claimed the vessel, the container ship Ever Lovely, was using military escorts in the Oman-half of the strait, and that it undermined the Islamic republic’s control over the passageway.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Iran will exercise sole management of the Strait of Hormuz for the next 30 days before allowing full traffic to resume.“Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions, as we witnessed in the past two nights,” Araghchi told reporters in Iraq.
Under the terms of the MOU, Iran had agreed to keep the strait open and free for the full 60 days of negotiations before taking control of the waterway.Iran said it pla...