Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bhager Ghalibaf on Friday said the strait of Hormuz will not remain open while the US continues to blockade Iranian ports, seemingly contradicting a statement made by the country's foreign minister earlier in the day.
"Passage through the strait of Hormuz will be conducted based on the designated route with Iranian authorization," Ghalibaf, posted on X at 6:14pm ET Friday (22:14 GMT). "Whether the strait is open or closed and the regulations governing it will be determined by the field, not by social media."
Ghalibaf led the Iranian delegation during the negotiations with the US in Islamabad, Pakistan, last weekend.
Iranian foreign minister Seyed Araghchi had said earlier on Friday the strait would be open to commercial vessels for the duration of the US-Iran ceasefire, after Israel and Lebanon agreed to their own ceasefire.
US president Donald Trump moments later said the strait was "COMPLETELY OPEN" and ready for passage. But Trump said the naval blockade the US military began enforcing against vessels entering or leaving Iranian ports on 13 April would remain in full effect until "OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE".
Marine Traffic Vessel tracking data in the region showed a large number of vessels setting sail to exit the strait of Hormuz following the news that it was open for commercial transit.
Vessels attempting to exit the strait indicated affiliations with France, India, Turkey and China in the destination fields of their automatic identification systems.
Many of the vessels that were attempting to depart have either made U-turns or have stopped, vessel tracking data show.
The claims that the strait of Hormuz was open for commercial traffic were met with skepticism by the shipping community and observers.
"The announcement from 17 April at around 1400 GMT by US president Donald Trump that the strait of Hormuz is fully open is inaccurate," shipping association BIMCO's chief security officer Jakob Larsen said.
"Iran is still in control of how ships navigate" the strait of Hormuz, Noam Raydan, a senior research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, posted on X on Friday. "There's a new navigation order in Hormuz. Iran should be expected to continue maintaining influence over the maritime domain."

