The pressure for Iran to make peace is intensifying as the U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports continues. “From the Gulf of Oman to the open oceans, our Navy is enforcing this blockade without hesitation or apology,” declared Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in an April 24 briefing.
To date, more than 30 ships have been turned away from Iranian ports. Non-Iranian vessels are allowed to transit, and many have, said Secretary Hegseth. He explained that the blockade is not only in the Gulf of Arabia but is global in scope.
“Just this week, we seized two Iranian dark fleet ships in the Indo-Pacific region that had left Iranian ports before the blockade went into effect. They thought they'd made it out just in time. They did not. We seized their sanctioned ships and we will seize more,” said Secretary Hegseth.
“No one sails from the Strait of Hormuz to anywhere in the world without the permission of the United States Navy,” he declared. Speaking to the regime in Tehran, Secretary Hegseth said, “the blockade is tightening by the hour. We are in control, nothing in, nothing out.”
Iran's battered Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been “reduced to a gang of pirates with a flag.” The IRGC doesn’t “control anything. They're acting like pirates, acting like terrorists. They're the ones who lay indiscriminate mines, who shoot at random ships, who killed 45,000 of their own people, innocent protesters in the course of weeks ... They are the bad actors,” declared Secretary Hegseth.
Iran now has an open window to choose a negotiated end to the war. “All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways,” said Secretary Hegseth. “Or instead, they can watch their regime's fragile economic state collapse under the unrelenting pressure of American power.”
“The choice is theirs. But with this blockade, the clock is not on their side,” warned Secretary Hegseth. In the meantime, President Donald Trump has authorized the U.S. Navy to destroy any Iranian fastboats that attempt to put mines in the water or disrupt passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran has a historic chance to make a serious deal, and the ball is in their court,” said Secretary Hegseth. “Either way, the War Department stands ready for what comes next, locked and loaded.”