AGENCIES

The US military began a blockade of ships leaving Iran’s ports yesterday, President Donald Trump said, and Tehran threatened to retaliate against ports of its Gulf neighbours after weekend talks on ending the war broke down.

Oil prices climbed back over $100 per barrel, with no sign of a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to ease the biggest ever disruption in supplies and broader concerns over the durability of a two-week ceasefire agreement reached last week.

Trump said that Iran had been in touch and wanted to make a deal, but that he would not sanction any agreement that allows Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday. “We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world.”

Since the war started on February 28, Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz to all vessels except its own, saying passage would be permitted only under Iranian control and subject to a fee.

Trump said earlier that Washington would block Iranian vessels and any ships that paid such tolls and that any Iranian “fast-attack” ships that went near the blockade would be eliminated.

Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik, a spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Defence, warned that efforts by foreign military to police the strait would escalate the crisis and Spain’s

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