Iran Threatens Retaliation Over U.S. Blockade

 

Iran War Live Updates: Iran Threatens Retaliation Over U.S. Blockade

Iran’s armed forces said they would attempt to expand their influence over sea lanes beyond the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. military continued to block Iranian shipping.

 

Ali Watkins Peter Eavis Aaron Boxerman and Erika Solomon

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/15/world/iran-war-trump-us-israel

 

Here’s the latest.

Iran on Wednesday threatened further retaliation over an American naval blockade of its ports in the critical Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. military said that it had “completely halted” trade in and out of Iran by sea.

 

More than 10,000 soldiers, as well as dozens of planes and warships, are enforcing the blockade, the U.S. military said. In response, the Iranian military said on state media that it could expand its grip over critical shipping routes beyond the strait if the U.S. blockade continued.

 

“Iran’s powerful armed forces will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea,” said Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, leader of the military joint command that oversees Iran’s army and Revolutionary Guards.

 

Mediators are rushing to shore up a two-week cease-fire in the war between the United States, Israel and Iran that expires April 21. But the future of the talks is unclear after a meeting between Vice President JD Vance and senior Iranian leaders over the weekend in Pakistan ended without a breakthrough.

 

Esmaeil Baghaei, a senior Iranian official, said that Iran had continued to exchange messages with the United States through Pakistan since the talks ended on Sunday morning.

 

President Trump, in an interview with Fox Business, again deemed the conflict “close to over” — a claim he has made repeatedly — while also suggesting that U.S. attacks could continue as long as needed to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

 

Iran has not fully relaxed its control over the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf conduit for oil and gas, which Mr. Trump said was a precondition for the current truce. Iran began blockading the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure tactic during the war, rattling the world economy and sending energy prices soaring.

 

Reaching a deal to end the war would require not only an agreement to reopen the strait, but also an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program and Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group.

 

The United States announced on Tuesday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to “launch direct negotiations” to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The announcement followed a rare face-to-face meeting in Washington between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors.

 

Hezbollah condemned the Lebanese government for negotiating with Israel, however, and it was unclear whether any Israel-Lebanon agreement would lead to an end in the fighting. Hezbollah has long been Lebanon’s dominant military and political force, defying attempts by the official Lebanese government to assert control.

 

Here’s what else we’re covering:

 

Lebanon: The talks between Israel and Lebanon did not lead to an immediate cease-fire. Israeli forces bombarded towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanese state media. Several people were killed in a strike in the coastal town of Ansariya, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.

 

Iranian rescues: Emergency teams have rescued more than 7,200 Iranians from rubble after U.S. and Israeli bombings throughout the war, the president of Iran’s Red Crescent society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said. The Iranian authorities have released little comprehensive information about the dead and wounded in the country, more than a month in the war.

 

Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of last Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday that 2,124 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In attacks attributed to Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Persian Gulf nations. At least 22 people had been killed in Israel as of Sunday, as well as 12 Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.