US begins blockade of Iran's ports, Tehran threatens to retaliate

• Trump says Iranians want to make a deal.
• Iran warns of harsh response to blockade.
• Oil prices jump back over $100 per barrel.
  

WASHINGTON: The US military began a blockade of ships leaving Iran's ports on Monday, President Donald Trump said, and Tehran threatened to retaliate against ports of its Gulf neighbours after weekend talks on ending the war broke down.

Oil prices climbed back over $100 per barrel, with no sign of a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to ease the biggest ever disruption in supplies and broader concerns over the durability of a two-week ceasefire agreement reached last week.

Trump said that Iran had been in touch on Monday and wanted to make a deal but that he will not sanction any agreement that allows Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.

"Iran will not have a nuclear weapon," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We can't let a country blackmail or extort the world."

Since the war started on February 28, Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz to all vessels except its own, saying passage would be permitted only under Iranian control and subject to a fee.

Trump said earlier that Washington would block Iranian vessels and any ships that paid such tolls and that any Iranian "fast-attack" ships that went near the blockade would be eliminated.

Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik, a spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Defence, warned that efforts by foreign military to police the strait would escalate the crisis and instability in global energy security.

Nato allies, including Britain and France, said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, stressing instead the need to reopen the waterway, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil normally passes.

Ceasefire under strain

The ceasefire that halted six weeks of US and Israeli airstrikes looked in jeopardy, with only a week left to run. Washington said Tehran rejected its demands at weekend talks in Islamabad, the highest-level discussions since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The US military's regional Central Command said the blockade would be "enforced impartially against vessels of all nations" entering or leaving Iranian ports in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

"The blockade will not impede neutral transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian destinations," Central Command said in a note to seafarers seen by Reuters on Monday.

Two Iranian-linked tankers, the Aurora and New Future, laden with oil products, left the strait on Monday before the deadline, according to LSEG data.

An Iranian military spokesperson called any US restrictions on international shipping "piracy," warning that if Iranian ports were threatened, no port in the Gulf or Gulf of Oman would be secure. Any military vessels approaching the strait would violate the ceasefire, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said.

Trump said that Iran's navy had been "completely obliterated" during the war, adding that only a small number of "fast-attack ships" remained.

Lebanon faces attacks

Israel has continued to bombard Hezbollah in Lebanon and on Monday Israeli troops launched an attack to seize a key south Lebanon town from the group. Israel and ‌the US have ⁠said the campaign against Hezbollah was not part of the ceasefire, while Iran has insisted it is.

Iran has brought new demands, including recognition of its control of the waterway, lifting of sanctions and the withdrawal of forces from US military bases across the Middle East.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said efforts were still on to resolve the conflict after the direct talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad at the weekend.

Trump has declared victory, despite failing to achieve the objectives he set out at the start of the war: to eliminate Iran's ability to strike its neighbours, end its nuclear programme and make it easier for Iranians to topple their government.

Benchmark oil prices, which had eased last week after the ceasefire was announced, traded around 6% higher on Monday, off the day's peaks but still above $100 a barrel.