Iran port blockade has started, Trump says, after pledging approaching attack ships will be 'eliminated'

How would a U.S. Armed forces block off of Iran's ports act?

How do you do a naval blockade? We asked a retired admiral

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U.S. President Donald Trump says a military blockade of Iranian ports is underway, following his threats to block off the entire Strait of Hormuz yesterday. 

As all eyes have been on the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding ports, Israeli Defence Forces launched an operation to seize the border town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon today.

A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile ruled out a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The U.S. And Israel have denied Iranian claims that Lebanon was part of the two-week ceasefire brokered with Iran.

"We will not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah, which continues to carry out indiscriminate attacks against Israel and our civilians," Israeli spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters today. 

Lebanese sources told Reuters Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbeil are prepared to "fight to the death."

Israel says it's investigating reports that a strike on a Hezbollah target in Tyre hit a Red Cross site, while rockets and drones fired from Lebanon have hit northern Israel, injuring at least one person.

Israel has increasingly targeted Lebanese first responders and medical centres, forcing several hospitals to evacuate — which some have pointed out resembles its actions in Gaza.

The U.S. Is set to host rare talks between Israeli and Lebanese government envoys tomorrow.

Reuters

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke out today against Trump's attack on Pope Leo, joining other world leaders' defence of the religious leader.

"I find President Trump's words towards the Holy Father unacceptable. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war," she said.

It was an extremely rare public rebuke from Meloni, who has cultivated particularly close ties with Trump, underscoring widespread anger in Italy over his broadside the Pope.

Meloni was the only European leader to attend Trump's inauguration in 2025 and she had hoped their friendship would boost her standing at home and abroad.

However, Trump risks becoming a liability, with 66 per cent of Italians having a negative view of the U.S. Leader. Pollsters say Meloni's ties to the White House might have been a factor in her defeat last month in a referendum on judicial reform.

How do you do a naval blockade? We asked a retired admiral

A naval blockade is an act of war, but U.S. Ships would not fire on ships attempting to run it, says Mark Norman, a retired Royal Canadian Navy vice-admiral and fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. The mission would be to intercept and interdict, order them to stop, possibly using warning shots. Boarding and seizing ships would involve dropping troops by helicopter. 'That gets pretty dicey,' Norman said.

deutschmark jessye norman, retired royal stag canadian river naval forces vice-admiral and fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said the operation will likely involve U.S. Forces establishing patrol zones outside of the strait itself to intercept ships, using a combination of warships, aircraft and helicopters.

But he cautioned that physically stopping tankers presents major challenges. Boarding operations tactics can get "pretty dicey," he said, particularly if ships are linked to countries like China.

Norman also warned of the legal and geopolitical implications: "The act of a blockade itself … is an act of war," he said, noting there had been ambiguity around whether the U.S. Had engaged in war or not with Iran. 

"As soon as you blockade a country, that is, under international law, an overt act of war. Now, to board and seize a vessel of another flagged nation, that is right up against the line of a similar act of war," Norman said. 

He described the blockade as a high-stakes gamble to force Iran back to negotiations, calling it "the only significant remaining pressure point" — but also "a somewhat desperate act."

"I'm not convinced strategically that it's necessarily the best solution, but I think the U.S. Have painted themselves into a bit of a corner here," he said. 

While the U.S. Likely has the capability to carry out the operation, Norman said resources will be stretched. "It’s going to come at a cost."

Correction: A previous version of this post's headline incorrectly identified Mark Norman as a retired Canadian navy general. 

Speaking outside the White House a short while ago, Trump confirmed the blockade started at 10 a.m. ET. He said it's aimed at both forcing Iran back to negotiations and reopening global energy flows. 

"Maybe everything. I mean, both of those things, certainly. And more," he said when asked about the endgame, accusing Iran of trying to "blackmail the world."

Trump insisted the pressure campaign is working, claiming Iran's economy has effectively been cut off: "Iran is doing absolutely no business and we're going to keep it that way, very easily."

He also repeated his hardline stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions, but also suggested diplomatic outreach may already be underway.

"I think they will agree to it. I'm almost sure of it. In fact, I am sure of it. If they don't agree, there's no deal. There'll never be a deal," he said.

While the U.S. Does not rely on the strait for its own energy needs, Trump framed the blockade as a global necessity. 

"We have our own oil and gas much more than we need," he said, adding that other countries "have offered their services" and will "let it be known probably tomorrow." No other countries have confirmed or denied plans to participate.

He also hinted at further escalation if talks fail, warning that if no agreement is reached by the end of the ceasefire, "it won't be pleasant for them."

The U.S. Seeks to stop any vessel going to or from an Iranian port. They'll use a combination of open source intelligence and more covert methods to determine which ships those are.

They would start with the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which all commercial ships broadcast. It lists specific information, including their intended destination port. However, a ship's crew can change this destination entry manually, so some may seek to deceive the U.S. Navy about their true destination.

They can also switch this system off, as Russia's shadow fleet of oil tankers often does, but that is particularly risky in a crowded waterway, and would also be a red flag.

The U.S. Will certainly employ long-range patrol aircraft, which have the ability to detect ships leaving an Iranian port from hundreds of kilometres away, and direct U.S. Warships to intercept it. Satellite imagery will be useful in the same way.

And ships with a known history of servicing Iranian ports will likely be most suspect as they approach the region. 

Finally is the most covert option: U.S. Nuclear submarines. They can track a slow-moving oil or gas tanker over huge distances. They cannot board a vessel, but could direct other forces to do so.

The Associated Press

The current truce between the U.S. And Iran appears to be holding, with no word on whether negotiations will resume before it expires on April 22.

Pakistan's foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said his country will try to facilitate a new round of dialogue between Iran and the U.S. In the coming days. There was no immediate reaction from either side.

A key obstacle seems to be a perception on both sides that they won the war and that each has time on its side.

Financial markets in North America dipped and then rose in early trading as the U.S.'s blockade deadline passed.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading after erasing an earlier dip. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 250 points, or 0.5 per cent, as of 10:05 a.m. ET, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3 per cent higher.

Oil markets are hovering around the $100 US a barrel mark. Despite ceasefire talks over the weekend ending with no deal, analysts said the market was still looking for positives in the situation.

"Markets are taking some encouragement from the fact that the two sides are talking and that the broader ceasefire seems to be holding for now," Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, told The Associated Press.

Trump has a track record for using high-risk pressure to seek a desired outcome. With the blockade, he hopes Iran will buckle to the U.S.'s demands in now-stalled truce talks. Once enacted, the blockade seeks to starve Iran of $200 million US in daily oil revenues.

But it's also very risky. Let's imagine some scenarios:

Iran could strike a U.S. Warship

Most of the U.S. Naval presence is out in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, further away from Iran's coastline. That makes them safer from any Iranian attack. But it also puts them in a much wider and busier body of water where interdicting ships will be harder than in the narrow Strait of Hormuz.

Two U.S. Destroyers have moved through the Strait of Hormuz and are now in the Persian Gulf. But they are most at risk because of how close they are to Iran. Were a missile to be fired at the ships from the coastline, the ship would have just seconds to respond with countermeasures.

What if a ship refuses to stop?

The U.S. Navy rehearses forced boardings — often by inserting soldiers by helicopter to seize a vessel. Doing so in international waters comes very close to the line where it can be considered an act of war.

Warships will typically demand information from a ship's master (the person in charge) over the radio. If there is no response, or the answer is unsatisfactory, the warship may escalate to the point of firing warning shots. But doing that — or even trying to physically block the path of a flammable oil-laden supertanker — is very risky.

"It's not like you're going to put a destroyer, necessarily, in front of a 200,000-tonne oil tanker," Mark Norman told us. He's the former commander of the Royal Canadian Navy. "You [are] certainly not going to shoot at it with the missiles or guns or anything like that."

Some shipping companies will keep their vessels out of the region altogether. And all of this serves to increase the price of oil, which is no good for the Trump administration either.

Posting on Truth Social minutes ago, Trump appeared to contradict CENTCOM statements saying it would intercept ships and turn them away. 

The U.S. President instead warned that any Iranian vessels approaching the U.S. Blockade would be targeted.

Trump wrote that Iranian naval forces have already been largely destroyed in fighting, claiming "Iran's navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated — 158 ships."

"If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea," he said, referring to the U.S. Military's months-long campaign of targeting alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean and Pacific oceans.

He said smaller "fast attack ships" would be treated as a threat if they approach U.S. Forces.

The post echoes previous discrepancies between Trump's social media posts and CENTCOM statements, which have not made any reference to targeting or destroying vessels.

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