The grace period that effectively began just before the end of the first ten days of April is now a distant memory for Iran and the United States — gone, never to return. With negotiations at a standstill and Donald Trump declaring at the NATO Summit that there was no possibility of extending the ceasefire, the first strikes followed. In the early hours of Tuesday, July 14, US Armed Forces bombarded Iran relentlessly for approximately five hours. Now, according to a Washington Post report, the Americans have deployed 19 warships to the Middle East with the aim of reimposing a naval blockade on Iran. The newspaper cites an American official who requested anonymity. The official stated that the majority of the vessels have been deployed to the northern Arabian Sea, adding that this is a serious mission, as the fleet includes the aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush. The naval force is further rounded out by 13 destroyers, one amphibious assault ship, one cruiser, and two landing craft. The official added that the large number of destroyers gives US forces enhanced capabilities to enforce a naval blockade against Iran and maintain a strong military presence in the region.
Read more: Barrage of explosions in Iran: US strikes Bushehr and Bandar Abbas — tanker also targeted
Iran: All passages cut off
According to the report, all passages to and from Iranian ports will be sealed once the naval blockade — announced for 11:00 PM on Tuesday, July 14 — takes full effect. The last time the US Navy established such a presence offers a telling precedent: 140 commercial vessels were intercepted or forced to turn back, and nine cases were recorded in which ship engine rooms were bombed after the vessels refused to return to their port of origin.
Donald Trump, for his part, stated that through this mission the US would conduct trade with ships wishing to transit the Strait of Hormuz, while proposing a levy of 20% of the value of each cargo in exchange for safe passage. Iran, though on the defensive, has signaled agreement with the fee, yet insists it will not permit US interference in the region — arguing that Washington has no role to play there, even as politicians from developed nations have repeatedly invoked freedom of navigation under international law. Until as recently as February 27, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz daily, with more than 15 million barrels of fuel per day — worth at least $1.2 billion — flowing to international markets.
