US Hormuz blockade plan illegal, amounts to piracy: Iran army

The Iranian military has said that a US naval blockade on vessels in international waters would be illegal and amount to piracy, warning that no Gulf ports would be safe if its own were threatened.

The US military said it would begin a blockade of all Iranian ports on Monday at 2:00 pm GMT, after talks between the warring sides in Pakistan collapsed.

President Donald Trump also announced on social media that the US would blockade the strategic Strait of Hormuz trade route, which he has been demanding that Tehran fully reopen.

An Iranian army statement on Monday said if the security of Iran's ports in the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea is threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea would be safe.

"The restrictions imposed by criminal America on maritime navigation and transit in international waters are illegal and constitute an example of piracy," said the statement issued by the Iranian military's central command centre, Khatam al-Anbiya, which was read on state television.

The weekend's failed talks dashed hopes of a swift deal to permanently end the war that has killed thousands and thrown the global economy into turmoil since it began in late February.

Despite the threats, the ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran that entered into force last week has been holding, with no indication of an immediate resumption of the war.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global oil and gas shipments, has been heavily restricted since the start of the war, with Iran allowing only a few vessels serving friendly countries such as China.

Oil prices, which had tumbled with the truce, jumped almost 8 per cent on Monday, with both key WTI and Brent contracts topping $100 a barrel.

The US Central Command said the planned blockade would be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Military forces would not impede vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports, it added.

In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Trump said his goal was to clear the strait of mines and reopen it to all shipping, but that Iran must not be allowed to profit from controlling the waterway.

China, US allies condemn move
China, Washington's great power rival and a major importer of Iranian oil, also criticised the US plan.

"The Strait of Hormuz is an important international trade route for goods and energy, and maintaining its security, stability and unimpeded flow is in the common interest of the international community," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said, urging Iran and the US not to reignite the war.

Among Washington's NATO allies, Spain's Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the planned naval blockade "makes no sense". "It's one more episode in this whole downward spiral into which we've been dragged," she said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the BBC that Britain would not join the US blockade, adding that the UK "is not getting dragged" into the US-Israel war on Iran.