Updates
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The International Maritime Organization's secretary-general, Arsenio Domínguez, said Thursday that approximately 2,000 vessels carrying around 20,000 crew members remain trapped in the Persian Gulf, unable to transit the strait under the dual US and Iranian blockades. Domínguez, speaking from London, warned that the longer the situation persists, the greater the risk of food, water and fuel rationing aboard those ships. He said the IMO was already working on plans for managing the eventual release of vessel traffic once the blockade ends, acknowledging the process could take weeks. CENTCOM's Thursday update put the total number of ships turned back at US direction at 14, up from six reported in the blockade's first 24 hours.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the naval blockade would continue 'as long as it takes,' warning that the US remained 'locked and loaded' to strike Iran's energy facilities, power generation infrastructure and 'critical dual-use infrastructure' if Tehran failed to reach a deal. Hegseth said the US was deploying 'less than 10% of America's naval power' — currently 16 warships including an aircraft carrier, 11 destroyers and three amphibious assault ships — to enforce the measure. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces were 'ready to resume major combat operations at literally a moment's notice,' and confirmed that enforcement would occur in both international waters and inside Iran's territorial seas. Hegseth said ships attempting to breach the blockade would be warned that force would be used if they failed to comply.
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Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Tehran's delegation at the failed first round of talks in Pakistan, told Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday that Iran has been "striving to compel our enemies to establish a permanent ceasefire in all conflict zones," insisting that a ceasefire in Lebanon was "just as important" as one in Iran — a demand the US and Israel have rejected as outside the scope of any deal. Pakistan said it expected to host a second round of US-Iran negotiations, though no date or venue was announced. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, continuing his regional diplomatic tour, met Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha on Thursday after concluding his visit to Saudi Arabia, with the two leaders discussing de-escalation and dialogue; Sharif also thanked the emir after Qatar sent fighter jets to escort the Pakistani prime ministerial aircraft into Qatari airspace.
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The British government has been running a contingency planning exercise, codenamed Exercise Turnstone and coordinated through the Cobra emergency committee, to prepare for a 'reasonable worst-case scenario' stemming from a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Officials from Downing Street, the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence modelled scenarios including the strait remaining shut through June and a simultaneous mechanical failure at a key UK carbon dioxide plant, which could cause shortages of chicken, pork and fizzy drinks on supermarket shelves. Business Secretary Peter Kyle sought to reassure the public on Thursday, saying CO2 supplies were 'not a concern,' while calling the leak of the exercise details 'unhelpful.' Separately, a Financial Times investigation has revealed that Iran's Revolutionary Guards secretly purchased a Chinese satellite, designated TEE-01B, from the firm Earth Eye Co. in 2024, and used its high-resolution imagery to target US military bases in the region, including Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
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The ceasefire between the United States and Iran is set to expire in less than a week, intensifying pressure on international mediators scrambling to extend it and restart formal negotiations. The two sides remain far apart on core issues, including the future of Iran's nuclear program and the status of the Strait of Hormuz. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan confirmed that efforts were under way to bring Washington and Tehran back to the table, as the blockade entered its third full day with the strait's waters described as quiet.
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US Central Command confirmed late Tuesday that the blockade was "fully implemented," with Admiral Brad Cooper stating that economic trade entering and leaving Iran by sea had been "completely halted" within 36 hours of the measure taking effect. More than 10,000 sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel are involved in the operation, and CENTCOM said six merchant ships had complied with orders to turn around and return to Iranian ports in the first 24 hours. The US-sanctioned tanker Rich Starry, owned by Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Co, attempted to exit the Gulf but was forced back, with tracking data showing it returning toward the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif departed for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey on Wednesday as part of ongoing diplomatic efforts to revive US-Iran talks, while Riyadh separately pledged $3bn to bolster Pakistan's foreign reserves.
At least three vessels sailing from Iranian Gulf ports crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the first 24 hours of a US naval blockade, maritime tracking data showed on Tuesday, even as Washington insisted the measure had held and diplomatic efforts intensified to restart peace talks between the two countries.
The US military blockade — announced on Sunday after a first round of peace negotiations failed — came into effect at 1400 GMT on Monday. According to maritime data provider Kpler, at least seven Iran-linked vessels transited the strait, the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which roughly a fifth of global oil passed in peacetime. Among those that crossed were the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Christianna, which had just unloaded 74,000 tonnes of corn at the Iranian port of Bandar Imam Khomeini, and the Comoros-flagged tanker Elpis, loaded with 31,000 tonnes of methanol. A Chinese-owned tanker, the Rich Starry — listed by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control as linked to Iranian shipping — also transited the strait overnight before reversing course in the Gulf of Oman and heading back towards the waterway. The Christianna similarly turned around off Oman. US Central Command (CENTCOM), the military authority overseeing the region, maintained that its blockade had held, stating that six merchant vessels outside the strait had complied with orders to return to Iranian ports on the Gulf of Oman. Maritime analysts cautioned that signal disruption and manipulation in the area made fully precise tracking difficult.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was unequivocal about the blockade's scope, telling reporters on the sidelines of IMF-World Bank meetings that Chinese tankers would not be permitted passage. Chinese President Xi Jinping, in what was seen as rare implicit criticism of Washington, said nations should
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