The US military said it will begin a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas on Monday after weekend talks failed to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, jeopardizing a fragile two-week ceasefire.
The talks in Islamabad, which ran from Saturday into early Sunday, were the first direct U.S.-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The negotiations came days after a ceasefire began on Tuesday, aimed at ending six weeks of fighting that has killed thousands of people across the Gulf, throttled vital supplies of energy, and sparked fears of a wider regional conflict.
The U.S. Central Command said on Sunday that the U.S. blockade would start at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”
Vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports will not be impeded, the U.S. military said. Additional information would be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade, it said. President Donald Trump on Sunday also said U.S. forces would intercept every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran.