Strait of Hormuz reopening for commercial traffic, Trump and Iran say
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/17/iran-war-strait-of-hormuz-open-00878387
Strait of Hormuz reopening for commercial traffic, Trump and Iran say
The president said the U.S.'s blockade on Iranian shipping in the region will remain in effect, and lambasted allies for their lack of support.
Fishing boats dot the sea as cargo ships, in the background, sail through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz off the United Arab Emirates, on March 27, 2026. | AP
Trump welcomed Iran’s reopening of the strait, declaring the critical waterway “COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS” but said that a U.S. naval blockade there remains in effect for Iranian ships.
Trump, in a social media post, said he’d lift that blockade only after “OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” expressing optimism that negotiations on a broader deal with Tehran “SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY.”
In a second post, Trump claimed that the U.S. will “get all nuclear dust” out of Iran in an agreement, the details of which remained unclear.
The president’s declaration aimed to settle markets amid a rise in oil prices and growing concerns about the global economic impact of a prolonged impasse in the strait. His blockade of ships heading to and from Iranian ports, which began this week, is an effort to negate Iran’s main point of leverage in negotiations over the future of its nuclear program.
Iran agreed to open the strait Friday, a day after Trump was able to secure a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, aimed at the Hezbollah militant group, had enraged the Iranians and drew condemnation from even some European leaders as ill-timed.
“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced on X. He added that ships must follow routes coordinated by Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization.
Iranian leaders had argued that the Israeli campaign in Lebanon should have been included in the initial U.S.-Iran ceasefire announced last week, something that Israeli and American leaders publicly rejected.
The strait is a key waterway for the international oil trade, carrying roughly 20 percent of the global oil supply. The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran triggered the largest disruption in global oil market history, leading to rising oil and gas prices.
U.S. crude oil futures prices tumbled on the news, sinking nearly $10 a barrel to about $81.50 a barrel — the lowest level since early March.
Though the U.S. is less reliant on the Strait for its oil, it feeds some of the world’s largest economies, including about 40 percent of China’s oil and a large portion of the Indo-Pacific. With Iran threatening the passage of commercial ships with missiles and drones, traffic fell to a crawl.
The announcement is welcome news to the industry, but it will still take time for traffic to get back to normal given that tankers will still have to come close enough to the Hormuz coast for Iranian projectiles to pose a danger, said June Goh, oil market analyst for Sparta Commodities.
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“There will still be hesitation from the shipowners as the matter of risk and insurance is still a sticky one,” Goh said. “They will probably want to see some ships pass through safely before we see a bigger flow. It’s a game of who goes first.”
The strait’s closure during the conflict has infuriated the president, as oil prices spiked to at times over $100 a barrel. He had lambasted longtime American allies — including NATO — for their at best tepid support of the conflict, and their unwillingness to assist America in trying to reopen the strait.
The announcement came as the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy were meeting in Paris to discuss a potential international effort to secure the strait once hostilities sufficiently subsided. More than two dozen other word leaders participated in the discussions via videoconference.
“Now that the Hormuz Strait situation is over, I received a call from NATO asking if we would need some help,” Trump wrote Friday. “I TOLD THEM TO STAY AWAY, UNLESS THEY JUST WANT TO LOAD UP THEIR SHIPS WITH OIL. They were useless when needed, a Paper Tiger!”
The agreement to reopen the strait comes shortly after the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which Trump announced Thursday after talks between the two countries shepherded by the Americans. The Lebanese government has little control over Hezbollah, which gave open-ended statements on a ceasefire after the announcement.
Trump said he would be inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House soon for further negotiations.
Trump on Friday insisted repeatedly that the agreement to reopen the strait was not “tied, in any way, to Lebanon, but we will, MAKE LEBANON GREAT AGAIN!” He also said that the U.S. will “separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezboolah [sic] situation in an appropriate manner.”
Netanyahu said Thursday that the Israeli military will remain in Lebanon in a “reinforced security buffer zone” and demanded the disarmament of the group.
Yet on Friday, the Israeli leader reiterated that “at the request of my friend, President Trump, with whom we have changed the Middle East and achieved tremendous accomplishments, we have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon.”
Ben Lefebvre and Clea Caulcutt contributed to this report.
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