Tehran/Paris/Washington, April 17, (dpa/GNA) – After weeks of a blockade due to the US-Israeli war against Iran, the leadership in Tehran said on Friday that it is reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route, to oil tankers and merchant ships.
US President Donald Trump also announced the reopening of the strait, but said the United States would maintain its own naval blockade, which applies only to ships coming to and from Iran.
The US-Iranian announcements came as around 50 countries not involved in the conflict, led by France and Britain, backed a neutral naval mission at a conference in Paris to secure the strait near Iran’s coast that is important for global trade.
Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on X that merchant ships could pass through the strait during the current ceasefire. but would have to remain on a route specified by the Islamic Republic.
“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire,” Araghchi posted on X.
The two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict has been in place since April 8 and ends on April 22. In Lebanon, a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia started on Friday.
Trump’s post on his Truth Social network that the US blockade would remain “until the full conclusion of our agreements with Iran” caused outrage in Tehran.
Tasnim, a news agency close to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), lashed out at the Foreign Ministry, saying it made an important announcement about the strait’s reopening – without consulting the National Security Council.
This was an extremely inappropriate way to handle information and amounted to political misconduct that endangered national cohesion, an editorial by the agency read.
“If the Americans’ naval blockade in particular continues, open passage in the Strait of Hormuz is to be regarded as void,” the editorial said.
Iran’s presidential office warned the US not to torpedo the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through statements on social media.
Efforts are currently under way, mediated by Pakistan, to extend the pause in fighting and to pave the way for a comprehensive agreement, including in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.
The US news portal Axios, quoted Trump after a telephone call as saying, he believed there would be “an agreement in the next day or two.”
Trump said the Iranian sea mines allegedly laid in the strait between Iran and Oman had all been recovered or were still being removed. “Iran, with the help of the U.S.A., has removed, or is removing, all sea mines!” Trump wrote.
Experts assume there were several dozen mines that Iran is said to have laid about a month ago south of Iranian waters, even though Tehran has never confirmed such a deployment.
Iran blocked the strait after the start of the military conflict on February 28. Araghchi left open whether tankers and cargo ships would have to pay Iran a toll fee for passage.
It is also unclear how Iran’s announcement will affect shipping. Hundreds of tankers and cargo ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile in Paris, a meeting of some 50 countries, organized by France and the United Kingdom, called for an immediate, unconditional and complete reopening of the strait by all parties. Major European nations alongside India, China and Turkey took part, some via video.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the group is not only calling for free passage but it rejects “any restriction, any agreement that would in fact amount to an attempt to privatize the strait and of course any toll system.”
Multilateral monitoring mission?
France wants to organize a neutral naval deployment with Britain, that clearly distances itself from the warring parties in order to escort and secure merchant ships crossing the Gulf along Iran’s coast.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the deployment would be “strictly peaceful and defensive” in order to support mine clearance in the strait and to enable merchant shipping again.
Starmer said more than a dozen countries have already offered to contribute military assets to the mission. Macron also signalled that France’s navy, which is already extensively present in the region, could take part in a mission in the Strait of Hormuz.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy is ready to make its own naval units available for operations to secure shipping in the strait off Iran’s coast.
Germany is ready to contribute to securing free shipping there, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, for example in mine clearance and maritime surveillance. But the German government would like US participation “if possible,” he said. “It would be desirable from our point of view.”
Merz warned against a strain on relations with the US stemming from the Middle East conflict. “This war must not become a transatlantic stress test,” he said in Paris.
On the possible military deployment to secure the Strait of Hormuz, he added: “If what we have set out to do fails, then a major multidimensional global crisis threatens.”
A planning meeting is to take place in London as early as next week. It is to be accompanied by close coordination with the US and Israel.
GNA