Middle East crisis live: Iran reopens strait of Hormuz but US blockade remains

Here are a few photos of people displaced by fighting between Hezbollah and Israel returning to their villages in Lebanon following a ceasefire that went into effect Friday.

The US Department of Energy said on Friday it had loaned 26.03 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to nine oil companies, the third allotment under the Trump administration’s effort to curb fuel prices that have surged since the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Companies that have been awarded SPR loans include BP Products North America, ExxonMobil Oil Corp and Marathon Petroleum, the DOE said in a statement.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Friday for joint efforts for an effective mission to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait of Hormuz and said Kyiv’s wartime experience in the Black Sea could help.

“Decisions made regarding Hormuz now will determine how other aggressive actors perceive the possibility of creating problems in other straits and on other fronts,” Zelenskyy said in remarks to a video conference attended by 50 countries and chaired by France and Britain.

“We need to be as specific and clear as possible so that in six months we don’t find ourselves in the same situation as in Gaza, where much still needs to be done.” He added: “In Hormuz, there are security challenges that cannot be addressed by political decisions alone.”

Zelenskyy said that in the course of four years of war with Russia, Ukraine had “already carried out a very similar mission in the Black Sea”.

“Russia also attempted to blockade our sea and we have experience in escorting merchant vessels, demining, defending against air attacks and the overall coordination of such operations,” he said.

Ukraine, he said, had sent specialists throughout the Middle East to help countries benefit from its experience in defending against Russian drones, many designed in Iran.

“We can also contribute to maritime security,” he said. Ukraine has clinched security cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and says it is in talks with Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The commander of the Iranian navy, Shahram Irani, said Friday that Trump “has blockaded his friends” and not Iran, as the US said its blockade will remain in place after Iran declared the strait of Hormuz open to commercial traffic.

In a statement carried by Mizan, Iran’s official judiciary news agency, the navy chief said Trump’s blockade is just “empty words” and that no one is listening to him.

United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres on Friday welcomed the opening of the strait of Hormuz by Iran and said it was “a step in the right direction.”

In a statement, he said: “We need the full restoration of international navigational rights and freedoms in the Strait of Hormuz to be respected by all parties.”

The statement adds that Guterres hopes that “together with the ceasefire, this measure will contribute to creating confidence between the parties and strengthen the ongoing dialogue facilitated by Pakistan”.

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said a ceasefire agreed to by his country should be transformed into “permanent agreements,” without saying whether he was referring to a prospective peace deal with Israel.

“Now, we all stand before a new phase: the transition from working towards a ceasefire to working towards permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land, and the sovereignty of our nation,” he said.

Hezbollah has said it opposes direct talks with Israel and its lawmakers on Friday criticised the government for agreeing to hold such negotiations.

Without mentioning Israel, Aoun said: “These negotiations are not a sign of weakness, nor a retreat, nor a concession.”

After Donald Trump said a US blockade of ships sailing to Iranian ports – announced after talks with Tehran last weekend ended without agreement – would remain until “our transaction with Iran is 100% complete”, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei warned Tehran would take “necessary reciprocal measures” if a maritime blockade continued.

Significant differences between Iran and the United States remain to reach a deal aimed at ending the war, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that keeping the Strait of Hormuz open is “conditional on U.S. adherence to the terms of ceasefire”.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “no agreement has been reached on the details of the nuclear issues,” and serious negotiations are required to overcome differences.

He said Tehran hoped a preliminary agreement could be reached in the coming days with mediator Pakistan’s efforts, with the possibility of extending the ceasefire to “create space for more talks on lifting sanctions on Iran and securing compensation for war damages”.

“In exchange, Iran will provide assurances to the international community about the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme,” he said, adding any other “narrative about the ongoing talks is a misrepresentation of the situation”.

Shipping companies have reacted with cautious optimism to Iran’s announcement that the strait of Hormuz is now open, but industry leaders insist they need further guarantees before fully resuming operations.

Maersk, the world’s second largest container shipping company, released a statement “welcoming” the reopening of the strait, but said uncertainty still remains.

“We welcome the announced ceasefire and the public statements that commercial passage through the strait of Hormuz may again be possible – albeit for now for a limited period”, adding “the ceasefire may create transit opportunities, but it does not yet provide full maritime certainty, and we need to understand all potential conditions attached.”

German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd said it was working for its ships to sail through the strait “as soon as possible” but added that they require more clarity.

“It is good news that there appears to have been some progress in the negotiations between the US and Iran. Nevertheless, the situation around the Strait of Hormuz remains volatile. Whether the announced opening will actually hold will become clear in the coming days.,” it added.

Shipping association Bimco also cautioned members on returning to the strait.

“The status of mine threats… is unclear and Bimco believes shipping companies should consider avoiding the area,” said Jakob Larsen, Bimco’s chief safety and security officer

Donald Trump said Iran has agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely, and will not receive any frozen funds from the US, according to Bloomberg News.

The president told the outlet in a phone interview on Friday that a deal to end the war, which the US and Israel began with Iran in late February, is mostly complete. Talks over a lasting agreement will “probably” be held this weekend, he added.

• Iran’s foreign minister announced that passage for all commercial vessels though the strait of Hormuz is “completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire”. Donald Trump took to Truth Social to celebrate with a series of rapid-fire posts, but details of the reopening remain unclear – Iran’s announcement came with the caveat that ships would have to take a specified route. Arsenio Dominguez, the secretary-general of the UN’s International Maritime Organisation, said his agency is “currently verifying the recent announcement”.

• Trump was clear, however, that even with the reopening of the strait, the US naval blockade of Iran will remain in place until the conflict is fully concluded. He also said that Iran has agreed to never close the strait again, but that has not been verified.

• The oil price tumbled following Iran’s announcement about the reopening of the strait of Hormuz. Crude oil has plunged on hopes that energy supplies could resume after weeks of disruption. Brent crude, the benchmark for oil traded globally, has plunged below $90 a barrel, a 10% fall.

• Trump also posted that Israel is “PROHIBITED” by the US from bombing Lebanon and that “Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer”. However, minutes before that post, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu uploaded a video address declaring that Israel was not done yet with Hezbollah. Netanyahu said Israel had agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon at the request of Trump and that it has given Israel the opportunity to promote a combined political and military solution with the Lebanese government – which he described as one hand holding a weapon while the other is extended in peace. Earlier Friday, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said the Israeli military “holds and will continue to hold” all positions it has “cleared and captured” in Lebanon.

• The Lebanese army has also reported “a number of violations” of the ceasefire this morning, as thousands of displaced families have begun making their way home to southern Lebanon. The current bout of fighting, which began on 2 March, has killed more than 2,100 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million.

• Trump also said in an interview with Reuters on Friday that Iran’s enriched uranium will be brought to the US. Trump said the US and Iran would work together to recover the uranium, but denied reports that the US was considering a $20bn cash for uranium deal. “No money is changing hands,” Trump said.

Donald Trump told Reuters in an interview on Friday that Washington will work with Tehran to recover Iran’s enriched uranium to bring back to the US.

“We’re going to get it together. We’re going to go in with Iran, at a nice leisurely pace, and go down and start excavating with big machinery… We’ll bring it back to the United States,” Trump said.

He referred to “nuclear dust” – a reference to what he believes remains after the US and Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear installations last year – and said it would be retrieved “very soon”.

Trump has repeatedly said that a primary reason for the war was to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Iran has 440.9kg of uranium enriched to 60% uranium-235, a level that can be quickly enriched to weapons-grade – 90%, but has long maintained that its enrichment of uranium was strictly for peaceful civilian use.

When asked by Reuters about a report that the US was considering a $20bn cash for uranium deal, Trump said: “It’s totally false. No money is changing hands.”

Rarely has the timeworn cliche “the fog of war” found a more fitting application than the current state of play in the strait of Hormuz.

On Friday, Iran declared the strategically vital waterway, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s energy supplies pass, “completely open” for the remainder of the current ceasefire with the US and Israel, having used its closure as a major part of the response to the military attacks on it.

The announcement, from the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, initially appeared to signal a major breakthrough and was treated as such by Donald Trump and global oil markets.

The US president, who once demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” issued a gushing “thank you” on his Truth Social network, while the price of Brent crude fell 10% to under $90 a barrel, promising welcome relief to motorists who have seen petrol prices soar at the pumps.

Yet – as often with an Iranian regime known for its opacity and tortuous negotiating tactics – all was not as it seemed.

Araghchi’s announcement was qualified by the caveat that ships would have to take a specified route described by shipping analysts as a shallow route near the island of Larak and the Iranian coastline.

With its experience of the “tanker wars’ that characterised Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, Tehran was clearly granting something less than the freedom of navigation that existed in the strait before the current conflict started on 28 February.

Further confusion was added by a threat from an unnamed Iranian official who, as reported by the semi-official news agency Fars, threatened to re-close the waterway if the US continued its naval blockade of ships entering and leaving the strait.

For its part, the US navy issued an advisory note to seafarers on the dangers posed by Iranian mines that neither inspired confidence nor lifted the veil of obfuscation.

“STATUS OF MINE THREAT IN PARTS OF THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD AND AVOIDANCE OF AREA SHOULD BE CONSIDERED,” it read.

If peace is at hand, negotiators clearly have to navigate a minefield
of their own before it can be fully grasped.

Thomas Kazakos, the secretary-general for the International Chamber of Shipping said in a statement to the Guardian the announcements today about the reopening of the strait of Hormuz offer “a cautious measure of reassurance to the global maritime community”.

He continued:

While this announcement is a positive step there is still much uncertainty around what it means in practice. Regardless it is essential that it marks the beginning of a broader and more durable return, beyond the current ceasefire, to freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical maritime corridors.

An orderly and sustained return to normal transit through the Strait will be essential. This will require close coordination between the International Maritime Organization, regional states, naval authorities, and the shipping industry to ensure that vessels can transit safely.

Above all, it is imperative that full freedom of navigation is respected by all parties in accordance with international law.

When asked about a Truth Social post made by Donald Trump in which he claimed that Nato offered to help the US with the strait of Hormuz, a Nato official responded:

NATO observed today’s meeting on freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and is closely monitoring the military planning being carried out.

In the post, Trump said Nato was “useless when needed” and had only offered to help after the strait was reopened, describing the military alliance as a “paper tiger”.

Arsenio Dominguez, the secretary-general of the UN’s International Maritime Organisation, said his agency is “currently verifying the recent announcement related to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, in terms of its compliance with freedom of navigation for all merchant vessels and secure passage using the IMO established traffic separation scheme”.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, had posted on X earlier that “passage for all commercial vessels through strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire”.

Moments later, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the strait was “COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE” but that the US naval blockade of Iran would remain in place.