Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports as well as key elections in Hungary, Peru, Canada, and Benin.

A U.S. military blockade of all Iranian ports and coastal areas in the Strait of Hormuz went into effect on Monday. According to U.S. Central Command, vessels transiting the strategic waterway to and from non-Iranian ports will be allowed to proceed unimpeded. However, President Donald Trump has made clear that if any ships “come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.”

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports as well as key elections in Hungary, Peru, Canada, and Benin.

A U.S. military blockade of all Iranian ports and coastal areas in the Strait of Hormuz went into effect on Monday. According to U.S. Central Command, vessels transiting the strategic waterway to and from non-Iranian ports will be allowed to proceed unimpeded. However, President Donald Trump has made clear that if any ships “come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.”

Trump first announced the blockade on Sunday, after U.S.-Iran peace talks in Islamabad over the weekend failed to reach a breakthrough. “No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” the U.S. president wrote on Truth Social, adding that “[a]ny Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”

Since the Iran war erupted in late February, Tehran has effectively prevented most vessels from transiting the strait, causing an unprecedented global energy crisis that has caused oil prices to skyrocket and upended financial markets. According to Kpler, a shipping data tracker, just 14 ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, though Trump claimed on Monday that 34 vessels had passed through the thoroughfare during that time.

The imposition of a sweeping blockade on Hormuz threatens the already fragile U.S.-Iran cease-fire, which went into effect on Wednesday. Trump has repeatedly conditioned the two-week truce on the strait’s reopening. On Monday, he told reporters that Iran had reached out to schedule another round of talks. “They’d like to make a deal very badly,” Trump said. However, the U.S. president did not specify whether Washington would rejoin negotiations, and Tehran did not confirm Trump’s assertion.

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, an Iranian military spokesperson, warned on Monday that if Iranian ports are threatened, “no port in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will be safe.”

If the White House is hoping to get support from its NATO allies,........

© Foreign Policy