(LEAD) U.S. to begin blockading all ships entering or exiting Iranian ports Monday: CENTCOM

▲ This photo, released by AFP, shows U.S. President Donald Trump making a fist upon arrival at Miami International Airport in Miami on April 11, 2026. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) US-Iran port blockade

(LEAD) U.S. to begin blockading all ships entering or exiting Iranian ports Monday: CENTCOM

(ATTN: ADDS more info in paras 8-12)

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. military will begin blockading all ships entering and exiting Iranian ports at 10 a.m. Monday (Washington time) in line with President Donald Trump's proclamation, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Sunday.

Hours earlier, Trump said that the U.S. Navy will conduct a blockade of all ships trying to enter or leave the crucial Strait of Hormuz after Washington and Tehran failed to reach an agreement during peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend.

"The blockade will 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," the command said in a statement.

"CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports," it added.

Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade, it said.

"All mariners are advised to monitor Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact U.S. naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16 when operating in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz approaches," it said.

The planned blockade comes as Iran has used the Strait of Hormuz as a pivotal lever to pressure the U.S. at a time when its restrictions on traffic through the strait led to a surge in oil prices and fanned fears of higher inflation ahead of the U.S. midterm elections slated for November.

Following Trump's announcement on the blockade, Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said that his country would not yield to U.S. threats, according to AFP. He was one of the top Iranian negotiators who joined the peace talks with the U.S. in Pakistan.

"If they fight, we will fight, and if they come forward with logic, we will deal with logic," he was quoted as saying after returning to Tehran from Islamabad. AFP cited the remarks that Iranian media outlets reported on.

"We will not bow to any threats, let them test our will once again so that we can teach them a bigger lesson," he added.

Trump has said that the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad "went well," claiming that the two sides agreed to "most points," excluding the "one point that really mattered" -- Iran's nuclear issue.

The negotiations proceeded amid a two-week ceasefire announced Tuesday. The talks marked the two countries' highest-level in-person talks since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979.

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