October 1, 2026
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.
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.
Trump said Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the talks' failure. In comments to Fox News, he again threatened to strike Iranian infrastructure.
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 terrorists.
Iranian officials said talks fell apart over two or three key issues.
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.
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 was at the center of tensions long before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.
Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insists on its right to a civilian nuclear program. Experts say Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.
Elsewhere in the region, airstrikes calmed over the past day except in Lebanon.
Iran’s 10-point proposal for the talks called for a halt to Israeli strikes on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group 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 terrorist group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.
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