US military says it will blockade Iranian ports after ceasefire talks
ended without agreement
[April 13, 2026]
By MUNIR AHMED, JOSH BOAK, SAM METZ, SAMY MAGDY
ISLAMABAD (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday the U.S. Navy would
swiftly begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the strategic
Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended
without an agreement.
U.S. Central Command announced the blockade would involve all Iranian
ports, beginning on Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, or 5:30 p.m. in Iran, to be
“enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.”
However, CENTCOM said it would still allow ships traveling between
non-Iranian ports to transit the strait. Its announcement was a step
down from the president’s earlier threat to blockade the entire strait,
and allows traffic to flow in the crucial waterway as long as it avoids
Iranian ports.
Trump wants to weaken Iran’s key leverage in the war after demanding
that it reopen the strait to global traffic on the waterway where 20% of
global oil transited before fighting began.
That traffic has been limited even in the days since the ceasefire.
Marine trackers say over 40 commercial ships have crossed since the
start of the ceasefire.
A U.S. blockade could further rattle global energy markets.
Oil prices rose in early market trading after the blockade announcement.
The price of U.S. crude rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel, and Brent crude
oil, the international standard, rose 7% to $102.29. Brent crude cost
roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February.
Later Sunday, Trump extended his feud over the war with Pope Leo XIV,
lashing out in a TruthSocial post that called the Catholic leader
“terrible on foreign policy.” The extraordinary broadside came after Leo
denounced the war and demanded that political leaders stop and negotiate
peace.
Iran says ‘if you fight, we will fight’
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later said the strait remained under Iran’s
“full control” and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones
would get a “forceful response,” two semi-official Iranian news agencies
reported.
During the 21-hour talks this weekend in Pakistan, the U.S. military
said two destroyers had transited the strait ahead of mine-clearing
work, a first since the war began. Iran denied it.
Trump’s plan to use the Navy to block the strait is unrealistic and he
will have to concede on some issues with Iran, said Andreas Krieg, a
senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London. “There
isn’t any tool in the toolbox in terms of the military lever that he
could use to get his way,” Krieg said.
Trump said Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the talks'
failure. In comments to Fox News, he again threatened to strike civilian
infrastructure.
Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’s side
in the talks, addressed Trump in a new statement on his return to Iran:
“If you fight, we will fight.”
No word on what happens after ceasefire expires
The face-to-face talks that ended early Sunday were the highest-level
negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
Neither indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April
22.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a
nuclear weapon,” said Vice President JD Vance, leading the U.S. side.
Iranian negotiators could not agree to all U.S. “red lines,” said a U.S.
official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to describe positions on the record. These included Iran
never obtaining a nuclear weapon, ending uranium enrichment, dismantling
major enrichment facilities and allowing retrieval of its highly
enriched uranium, along with opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending
funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels.
Iranian officials said talks fell apart over two or three key issues,
blaming what they called U.S. overreach. Qalibaf, who noted progress in
negotiations, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether
it can gain our trust or not.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to
facilitate a new dialogue in the coming days. Iran said it was open to
continuing dialogue, state-run IRNA news agency reported.
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Haifa Kenjo, who fled Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of
Beirut, holds her 15-day-old daughter Shiman inside the tent she
uses as a shelter and where she gave birth to her in Beirut, Sunday,
April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts. The foreign
minister of Oman, located on the Strait of Hormuz's southern coast,
called for parties to “make painful concessions." The Kremlin said
Russian President Vladimir Putin “emphasized his readiness” to help
bring about a diplomatic settlement in a call with Iran's president.
Iran's nuclear program is a key sticking point
Iran’s nuclear program was at the center of tensions long before the
U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. The fighting has killed
at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,055 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and
more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and damaged infrastructure in
half a dozen countries.
Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insists on its
right to a civilian nuclear program. The landmark 2015 nuclear deal,
which Trump later pulled the U.S. out of, took well over a year of
negotiations. Experts say Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium,
though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.
An Iranian diplomatic official, speaking on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of closed-door talks, denied that
negotiations had failed over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Inside Iran, there was new exhaustion and anger after months of
unrest that began with nationwide protests against economic issues
and then political ones, followed by weeks of sheltering from U.S.
and Israeli bombardment.
“We have never sought war. But if they try to win what they failed
to win on the battlefield through talks, that’s absolutely
unacceptable,” Mohammad Bagher Karami said in Tehran.
Elsewhere in the region, airstrikes calmed over the past day except
in Lebanon.
More questions as Israel presses ahead in Lebanon
Iran’s 10-point proposal for the talks called for a halt to Israeli
strikes on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has said
the ceasefire did not apply there, but Iran and Pakistan said it
did.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited parts of southern
Lebanon under Israeli control on Sunday, for the first time since
the current fighting. Attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified
alongside the ground invasion renewed after Hezbollah launched
rockets toward Israel in the war’s opening days.
Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin
Tuesday in Washington after Israel’s surprise announcement
authorizing talks despite their lack of official relations. Israel
wants Lebanon to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, but
the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for
decades.
The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut
with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people, according to the
Health Ministry.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported six people were
killed Sunday in Maaroub village near the coastal city of Tyre.
___
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Boak from Miami and Magdy
from Cairo. Associated Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing;
Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington; Kareem Chehayeb in
Beirut; Brian Melley in London; Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis; Hannah
Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Mae Anderson in New York
contributed to this report.
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