Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced on Friday, April 17, that the Strait of Hormuz would be “fully open” for the remainder of the “truce”.
It was not clear whether he was referring to the 10-day ceasefire agreed between Lebanon and Israel, which took effect at midnight, or the earlier two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States that began on April 8.
“In accordance with the ceasefire in Lebanon, passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared fully open for the remainder of the ceasefire,” Araghchi wrote on X.
He said the vessels’ passage through the Strait of Hormuz “will be on a coordinated route as already announced by the ports and the Maritime Organization of Iran.”
The announcement came after US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day truce between Lebanon and Israel on Thursday evening, a key move to ease tensions with Iran.
Trump confirms Hormuz is open but US blockade intact
In a post on social media, US President Donald Trump also confirmed that the strait “is fully open and ready for full passage”. But he said the US blockade would remain in “full force and effect as it only applies to Iran”.
“The Strait of Hormuz is fully open and ready for trade and full passage, but the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as far as Iran is concerned only until our transaction with Iran is 100% complete,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social.
“This process should go very quickly as most points have already been discussed. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President Donald J. Trump,” he wrote.
What does this mean for the US blockade of Hormuz?
It was not immediately clear what that meant for the US blockade of the strait. Trump announced the blockade of Hormuz after the first round of peace talks between the US and Iran ended without any conclusion or agreement.
Even as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and renewed Iranian threats strained a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the U.S., regional officials reported progress, telling the Associated Press that the United States and Iran had an “agreement in principle” to extend it to allow for more diplomacy.
Mediators are said to be pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points: Iran’s nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and compensation for war damages, according to AP sources involved in the mediation effort.
