Live updates: Follow the latest news on US-Iran war
Iran on Monday increased its threats of laying sea mines and launching more attacks across the region, hours before US President Donald Trump said he held "productive conversations" with Tehran and called off strikes on its power plants.
Iranian forces have blocked the waterway and fired on ships and tankers trying to pass through it, in an attempt to put pressure on the global economy and halt US-Israeli strikes.
The closure of the narrow strait has already had severe consequences for oil prices and other commodities, while leaving countries such as Iraq struggling to export their oil.
“Any attempt to attack Iran's coasts or islands will cause all access routes in the Gulf to be mined with various types of sea mines, including floating mines that can be released from the coast,” Iran’s Defence Council said in a statement carried by state media.
“In this case, the entire Gulf will effectively be in a situation similar to the Strait of Hormuz for a prolonged period. One should not forget the failure of more than 100 minesweepers in the 1980s to remove just a few sea mines.”
The council added that the only way for “non-belligerent countries” to use the strait was through co-ordination with Iran. It also warned of a “decisive and devastating response” to any attack on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure.
Mr Trump gave a 48-hour ultimatum to “fully open” the waterway – through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies are normally transported that was due to expire at 3.44am Gulf Standard Time on Tuesday.
In a Truth Social post, hours before the deadline, Mr Trump said he has instructed the US military against striking Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure "for a five-day period subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions".
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it would target power plants in Israel and those supplying US bases with electricity. “We are determined to respond to any threat at the same level as it is carried out in terms of deterrence. If you hit electricity, we hit electricity,” the IRGC said.
Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and six injured in a US-Israeli strike on a residential building in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Two others were killed in an attack on a park in the province, while Israeli strikes also hit areas across Tehran.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states announced they had intercepted additional Iranian drones and missiles on Monday.
Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28. Iran has since launched missile and drone attacks on neighbouring countries.
The US-based rights group HRANA said on Saturday that 3,230 people have been killed in Iran, including 1,406 civilians. Iranian state media puts the death toll at 1,270.
Lebanese authorities said about 1,029 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on the country since March 2, with the World Health Organisation reporting that more than 100 of the dead were children.
In Iraq, at least 60 people have been killed, most of them members of the Iran-aligned Popular Mobilisation Forces. Fifteen people have died in Israel, while its military said two soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon. Four Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank after an Iranian missile attack. At least 27 people have been killed across the Gulf, regional defence and interior ministries have said.
