Iran Partially Opens Strait Of Hormuz, But Admits To Placing Naval Mines

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh informed the world that Tehran would open the Strait of Hormuz in a limited capacity during an interview on Thursday.

Khatibzadeh admitted in the interview with ITV that the Iranian regime has laid naval mines in the strait. These mines will have to be cleared after the conflict is resolved, which can be expensive and dangerous.

“Anybody who communicates with the Iranian authority has got permission to pass,” Khatibzadeh said in the ITV interview.

Khatibzadeh explained in the interview that the Iranian regime will have to guide vessels through the strait for the foreseeable future. Tehran told mediators that it would limit passage to only 12 ships per day, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Iran plans to impose a transit toll of $1/barrel payable in Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency, according to the Financial Times.

Iran may have as many as 2,000 to 6,000 mines, according to statements provided by U.S. officials to CBS News. Declassified CIA documents from 1984 state that the Iranians may have mines with explosive payloads larger than 1100 pounds (500 kilograms). Explosive charges of this size have the power to cripple or even sink large vessels.

“I have all the reasons to be skeptical regarding the intention of the other side, but more than that, as we are seeing, Israelis are violating, the grave violation is happening right now in Lebanon, yesterday was a massacre,” Khatibzadeh said in the ITV interview.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday resulted in 89 deaths and more than 700 people wounded, according to a statement that Lebanon’s health ministry provided to Reuters.

The Israel Defense Forces stated in an X post that they successfully killed Lebanese Resistance Brigade leader Maher Qassem Hamdan. The brigades are an irregular militia composed of Christians, Sunni and Shia Muslims, according to reporting by the International Business Times from 2015.

“Renewed aggression by the Zionist regime against Lebanon blatantly violates the initial ceasefire,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X.

“I think ​this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I ⁠think the Iranians thought that the ​ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t,” Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters in Budapest, according to reporting by Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is seeking to begin negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible in a Government Press Office statement translated from Hebrew.

It remains unclear whether the current ceasefire will last. The ceasefire is slated to remain in place until April 22.

“The negotiations will focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing ​peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon,” Netanyahu stated. Lebanon has not indicated whether it will participate in peace talks.

Conflict between Israel and Lebanon includes first-person-view drones from Hezbollah being sent far past the front line and into Israel proper. The IDF recently seized a cache of Hezbollah’s FPV drones, according to reporting by The Times of Israel.

“What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran, and the ceasefire would be focused on America’s allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states,” Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters in Budapest.

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