Over the past several days, there have been conflicting reports about the Strait of Hormuz. It’s difficult to know what’s happening from one moment to the next.

Iran said the waterway was open to commercial shipping again, then turned around and said it was closed.

Iran then fired at two Indian-flagged ships going through the strait, forcing them to turn around.

The next day, the US fired on an Iranian cargo vessel, which Tehran called a violation of the two countries’ temporary ceasefire and threatened retaliation.

What’s actually happening in the strait? Are both sides acting lawfully? We asked naval expert Jennifer Parker to explain.

What happened over the weekend?

There have been several key developments over the last 48 hours.

The first was the statement from US President Donald Trump and the Iranian foreign minister on social media that the Strait of Hormuz remained open. It was an interesting announcement because it was consistent with what the foreign minister had said at the beginning of the ceasefire a week and a half ago.

On Saturday, we saw a large number of tankers and cargo vessels move towards the top of the strait to follow what Iran has designated as a new passageway. Some ships that are clearly desperate to get out of the strait were obviously more confident they were safe to transit through at that point.

The Joint Maritime Information Centre in Bahrain said 18 ships were able to transit through, at least ten through the new Iranian-designated........

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