Centcom says it has redirected 122 vessels enforcing Iran blockade
The military tally comes as an Iranian official says the Strait of Hormuz stays shut until Tehran's conditions are met
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Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
U.S. Central Command says its forces have redirected 122 commercial vessels since starting enforcement of a blockade against Iran, with Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit training aboard the USS Boxer as it sails in the region.
An Iranian official told Reuters the Strait of Hormuz will stay shut until Iran's conditions are met, and that Iran will hold no nuclear talks with the United States and make no concessions on its nuclear programme.
The blockade figures land alongside signs of diplomatic movement elsewhere. Qatari experts joined US-Iran talks in New York after Iran's delegation received US visas that had initially been denied, and sources in Tehran describe those talks as moving into a more detailed, increasingly positive technical phase, according to Al Jazeera's bureau chief in New York. Iranian President Pezeshkian has said his delegation's talks with Kushner and Whittaker focused only on Iran's rights under international law and asked for nothing beyond that.
The scale of Friday's enforcement update cuts against that diplomatic tone. A blockade run by 122 redirected vessels, paired with an Iranian statement ruling out concessions, points to a harder US posture than the recent rally in crude has priced in, and raises the odds of a wider regional conflict and a longer disruption to oil supply than markets have been betting on.