By Partner News Agency<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least three vessels attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz reported being hit by gunfire after Iran\u2019s military declared on Saturday it was once again closing the chokepoint in response to the United States\u2019 blockade of Iranian ports, according to The Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The move came a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the strait was\u00a0now open\u00a0to all commercial vessels in the wake of the ceasefire reached in Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An outgoing convoy of eight tankers transited the waterway before the renewed closure was announced, Reuters<\/em> reported. It was the first major movement of vessels through the strait since the war began on Feb. 28, the report read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tehran\u2019s tightening control over the strait comes on the backdrop of bellicose rhetoric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran\u2019s navy was ready to inflict \u201cnew bitter defeats\u201d on its enemies, according to Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The strait was restored to its \u201cprevious status\u201d and is now \u201cunder strict management and control by the armed forces,\u201d an Iranian engineering firm controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Khatam al-Anbiya, was quoted by The Guardian<\/em> as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iraian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh was cited by The Guardian<\/em> as saying, \u201c[The U.S.] cannot impose their will to do a siege over Iran, while Iran, with good intention, is trying to facilitate safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Tehran \u201cgot a little cute \u2026, they wanted to close up the strait again. … they can\u2019t blackmail us,\u201d Axios<\/em> correspondent Barak Ravid reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president added that by the end of the day, he would know whether the sides would close in on a lasting agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, Trump said on Truth Social<\/a> that the chokepoint was \u201ccompletely open and ready for business\u201d while the U.S. blockade on Iran remains intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a separate post, he added, \u201cIran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World! President DONALD J. TRUMP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking at a Turning Point USA event in Arizona on April 17, the president said that the U.S. \u201cwill go in together with Iran\u201d to excavate the enriched uranium reportedly buried deep underground after earlier airstrikes on nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s so deep we need the biggest excavators you can imagine,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019re going to take it back home to the USA very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n US President Donald Trump says Iran\u2019s uranium would be transferred to the United States under a potential peace deal, adding Washington would work with Tehran to extract it from nuclear sites using the \u201cbiggest excavators,\u201d as it is potentially deep underground after facilities\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/WlMzDILdGH<\/a>\u2014 Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng)April 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Asked by reporters on Friday aboard Air Force One what happens if the ceasefire is not extended by Wednesday, Trump replied, \u201cMaybe I won\u2019t extend it, but the blockade [on Iranian ports] is going to remain. So you have a blockade, and unfortunately, we have to start dropping bombs again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If you don’t have a deal by Wednesday when the ceasefire ends, will you extend the ceasefire?”@POTUS<\/a>: “I don’t know. Maybe I won’t extend it \u2014 but the blockade is going to remain… Unfortunately, we’ll have to start dropping bombs again.” pic.twitter.com\/rhC6ATfezT<\/a>\u2014 Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47)April 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n He added, however, that \u201cWe had some pretty good news 20 minutes ago, but it seems to be going very well in the Middle East with Iran. You\u2019ll hear about. I just think it\u2019s something that should happen. It\u2019s something that only makes sense to happen. And I think it will. We\u2019ll see what happens, but I think it will,\u201d per The<\/em> Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr \u2060Abdelatty said on Saturday that his country, Turkey, Pakistan and \u2060Saudi Arabia were working together on a security arrangement for the Middle East that will prevent the resumption of the war and ensure the stability of energy markets, supply chains and food security, Reuters <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Partner News Agency At least three vessels attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz reported being hit by gunfire after Iran\u2019s military declared on Saturday it was once again closing the chokepoint in response to the United States\u2019 blockade of Iranian ports, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move came a day after Iranian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[913,178,179],"coauthors":[381],"class_list":{"0":"post-12177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-2","8":"tag-fuel-crisis","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12179,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12177\/revisions\/12179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12177"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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