U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said Sunday it will begin blockading Iranian ports at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, 5:30 p.m. in Iran, following posts earlier in the day from President Trump directing the U.S. military to “clean out” the Strait of Hormuz.
The move follows 21 hours of unproductive peace talks in Pakistan on Saturday, where Vice President Vance said the sides had not “reached an agreement.”
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a Sunday Truth Social post, ahead of Centcom’s announcement.
“THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted,” he said in the post. “I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran.”
Centcom said the blockade will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations” and that it would allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to still enter the Strait of Hormuz.
“Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade,” Centcom wrote in a post on the social platform X.
Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been limited since the start of U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran on Feb. 28. Even since the outset of a ceasefire last week, oil traffic has been slow to trickle through the crucial shipping channel, which handles some 20 percent of the world’s oil cargo, according to The Associated Press.
The Strait of Hormuz reopening, in addition to the decimation of Iran’s nuclear program, are key issues for Trump as he weighs options while the clock ticks on his two-week ceasefire, which began Thursday.
“In many ways, the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our Military Operations to conclusion, but all of those points don’t matter compared to allowing Nuclear Power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people,” Trump wrote Sunday.
The president also said Iran was ultimately “unwilling” to negotiate on its nuclear future.
“So, there you have it, the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not,” Trump wrote Sunday.
