26/04/12
US plans to blockade Iranian ports on Monday: Update
Updates with details on US blockade of Iranian ports Washington, 12 April
(Argus) — The US says it will begin a naval blockade of Iranian ports starting
on Monday, after talks between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending the
fighting in the Middle East and reopening the strait of Hormuz faltered. The US
will institute a blockade against vessels from all nations entering or departing
Iranian ports, including ports on the Mideast Gulf and the Gulf of Oman,
beginning at 10am ET (14:00 GMT) on Monday, US Central Command said on Sunday.
US forces "will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the
strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports", Central Command said. US
president Donald Trump earlier on Sunday had threatened to bar passage of ships
cleared by Iran and to interdict any ship in international waters that had paid
a toll for exiting the Mideast Gulf. "No one who pays an illegal toll will have
safe passage on the high seas," said Trump, who previously mulled joint
US-Iranian control over the transit through Hormuz and access to any revenue
collected from ships passing through it. Ice Brent June futures jumped by around
8.8pc to $102.60/bl in early Asian trading on news of the US blockade.
Separately, the US on 11 April opted not to renew a sanctions waiver that had
allowed purchases of Russian crude in floating storage, a decision that could
further tighten global oil supplies. Talks end without deal Trump ordered the
blockade after marathon talks over the weekend between US and Iranian
negotiators in Islamabad, Pakistan, failed to achieve results. US vice president
JD Vance, who led the US delegation, blamed the lack of progress after 21 hours
of negotiations on Iran's reluctance to renounce ambitions to develop a nuclear
weapon. The Iranians refused to give up "the tools that would enable them to
quickly achieve a nuclear weapon", Vance said. Tehran denies having a program to
develop nuclear weapons. Tehran did not provide a specific reason for the lack
of results, but Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led
his country's delegation, attributed the lack of a breakthrough to the US
failing "to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of
negotiations". Ghalibaf, ahead of the talks, had demanded a halt in the ongoing
Israeli military operations in Lebanon and progress in unfreezing Iranian assets
held under a US embargo in foreign banks as a precondition for success in
negotiations. The talks followed a ceasefire declared on 7 April, with
Washington promising to halt its attacks on Iran while insisting Tehran reopen
the strait of Hormuz. But the waterway has largely remained under Iranian
control, and the few ships that have passed through it appear to have either
paid an unofficial toll to Tehran — believed to be the equivalent of $1/bl for
crude tankers — or to have made other arrangements with the Iranian government.
At least two Chinese very large crude carriers (VLCC) appear to have transited
Hormuz on Sunday. The US also accuses Iran of placing mines in at least some
parts of the strait. The Pentagon said on Saturday that two US destroyers
transited through the waterway into the Mideast Gulf "as part of a broader
mission to ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines previously laid by
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps" (IRGC). Tehran asserted that it had
warned the two US warships against transiting Hormuz and that further attempts
would draw a military response from Iran. Iran also said that it would respond
to a US naval blockade of Hormuz by encouraging Yemen's Houthis to resume
attacks in the Bab al-Mandeb waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Indian
Ocean, according to Iran's Tasnim news agency, which is linked to the IRGC. A
skiff with armed people aboard unsuccessfully attempted to board a sailing
vessel in the Red Sea, just north of the Bab al-Mandeb, the UK Maritime Trade
Operations said on Saturday. What next? Neither Iran nor the US has ruled out
further talks, and Iran's willingness to negotiate directly with the US leaves
some hope for a negotiated outcome. The ceasefire is nominally in place until 21
April and could be extended. Ghalibaf headed a delegation that included Iranian
security, diplomatic and economic officials and communicated willingness to
negotiate substantive issues in a way that eluded contacts between the US and
Iran since the end of former US president Barack Obama's administration. But the
two sides remain far apart, and Tehran and Washington each appears to believe
that it holds leverage over the other. Iran has prioritized discussion of
sanctions relief and the return of its frozen assets, in addition to formalizing
its control over the waterway that under international maritime law should be
free for passage. The US' continued insistence on addressing Iran's nuclear
program first precludes immediate results from the negotiations. It is not clear
whether Iran's nuclear file was addressed in depth. While Vance brought along
his national security advisers, there were no representatives from the UN
nuclear watchdog the IAEA, who in the previous round of US-Iranian talks
provided the technical expertise on Iran's nuclear program. Trump, who
previously said that the energy price spike triggered by the war in Iran would
soon ease, took a different tack over the weekend. The blockade of Hormuz is a
boon for US crude exporters, he said on Saturday: "The empty ships are rushing
to the United States to 'load up.'" Trump told Fox Business on Sunday that oil
and gas prices "could be the same or maybe a little bit higher" by the November
midterm congressional elections. Israel, which is not party to the talks, also
retains its ability to influence the future course of US-Iran relations by
conducting military operations in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. The
US-Iran negotiations also have excluded the Mideast Gulf states, even though
their economies overwhelmingly depend on the freedom of navigation through the
strait of Hormuz. By Haik Gugarats, David Ivanovich and Andrey Telegin Send
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