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instability in global energy security.

Nato allies, including Britain and France, said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, stressing instead the need to reopen the waterway, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes.

China, Washington’s great power rival and a big importer of Iranian oil, also criticised the plan.

“The Strait of Hormuz is an important international trade route for goods and energy, and maintaining its security, stability, and unimpeded flow is in the common interest of the international community,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said, urging Iran and the US not to reignite the war.

Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the planned naval blockade “makes no sense”.

And in a BBC radio interview, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would not join the blockade, adding the UK “is not getting dragged in”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that France and Britain would host a conference with countries prepared to join a “peaceful multinational mission” to secure the strait, but it would be “strictly defensive” and only operational once circumstances permit.

Last Wednesday, the US and Iran agreed a two-week truce to allow the negotiations to go ahead, and mediator Pakistan and Gulf state Qatar were still calling yesterday for it to be respected as diplomatic efforts continue.

“The ceasefire is still holding and, as I speak, full efforts are underway to resolve the outstanding issues,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan told a cabinet meeting.

The head of the International Maritime Organization, Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez, said no country could “prohibit the right of innocent passage or the freedom of navigation through international straits that are used for international transit”.

The US military’s regional Central Command said the blockade would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations” entering or leaving Iranian ports in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

“The blockade will not impede neutral transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian destinations,” Central Command said in a note to seafarers seen by Reuters yesterday.

The US leader’s latest change of tack left some observers perplexed.

“Presumably, Trump’s intent is to try to starve Iran of export revenue and compel Iran’s main oil customers, particularly China, to pressure Tehran to end its blockage of the strait,” think tank The Soufan Center said in its daily note.

Two Iranian-linked tankers, the Aurora and New Future, laden with oil products, left the strait yesterday before the deadline, according to LSEG data.

An Iranian military spokesperson called any US restrictions on international shipping “piracy,” warning that if Iranian ports were threatened, no port in the Gulf or Gulf of Oman would be secure. Any military vessels approaching the strait would violate the ceasefire, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said.

The US delegation in Islamabad -- led by US Vice-President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner -- was frustrated by Iran’s refusal to give up what it insists is a civilian nuclear programme.

In the talks, Iran brought new demands, including recognition of its control of the waterway, lifting of sanctions and the withdrawal of forces from US military bases across the Middle East.

Russia has offered to hold Iran’s enriched uranium safely as part of any deal.

“The offer still stands, but has not been acted upon,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Trump has declared victory, despite failing to achieve the objectives he set out at the start of the war: to eliminate Iran’s ability to strike its neighbours, end its nuclear programme and make it easier for Iranians to topple their government.

On Sunday, Trump said the price of oil and gasoline may remain high through November’s midterm elections, a rare acknowledgement of the potential political fallout from his decision to attack Iran six weeks ago.

“It could be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same,” Trump told Fox News.

The average price for regular gas at US service stations has exceeded $4 per gallon for most of April, according to data from GasBuddy. Average US gas prices in February hovered just below $3 per gallon, and over the past year, never exceeded $3.25 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.