Live updates: Follow the latest news on Iran war
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy looked to tighten its grip on the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday and forced at least two vessels back from the waterway, with reports that its gunboats opened fire.
Some vessels said they received radio messages from the IRGC navy telling them the strait was closed again and no ships were allowed to pass through.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said two Iranian gunboats opened fire on a tanker and a vessel north-east of Oman. TankerTrackers said earlier that Iran's navy forced two Indian vessels back out of the strait.
One of the vessels is an Indian-flagged VLCC supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi oil. The impact was not immediately clear. New Delhi said it summoned the Iranian envoy to voice its "deep concern" over the attack.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council said on Saturday it was reimposing strict military controls in the strait until the war was fully over. About a fifth of global oil trade normally passed through the waterway before the war – and the latest move by Tehran caused uncertainty over whether such traffic would be allowed to continue in the strait.
US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran were going "very well". He added that Tehran "got a little cute, as they have been doing for 47 years", referring to the country's move to close the strait once more.
"They wanted to close up the strait again, and they can't blackmail us," Mr Trump said.
Hours earlier, Mr Trump referred to “some pretty good news” about Iran, but declined to elaborate. He also said fighting might resume if no peace agreement was reached by Wednesday, when a two-week ceasefire expires.
Iran had announced the temporary reopening of the strait following a separate US-brokered 10-day ceasefire on Thursday between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But on Saturday, Iran's central military command announced it would resume “strict management” of the strait. In a statement on state television, it said Washington had broken a promise by continuing its naval blockade of ships sailing to and from Iranian ports.
In a message posted on his Telegram channel, meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the country's navy was ready to inflict “new bitter defeats” on its enemies.
Struggling diplomacy
Iran has not yet agreed to a new round of negotiations with the US, the Tasnim news agency quoted sources as saying. That comes after unconfirmed reports that the two sides were preparing to hold talks on Monday.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country's military chief wrapped up separate overseas visits on Saturday, as Islamabad steps up efforts to push for an end to the Iran war.
High-level US-Iran negotiations in Islamabad ended without agreement last weekend.
Mr Sharif concluded a trip to Turkey, capping a three-country diplomatic push. “I leave Antalya with fond memories and a renewed commitment to further strengthening the enduring fraternal bonds between our two nations, and to continuing our close co-operation to advance dialogue and diplomacy for lasting peace and stability in the region,” Mr Sharif said.
Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir, meanwhile, completed a three-day visit to Tehran, where he met senior Iranian leaders. He emphasised the need for de-escalation and a peaceful resolution of disputes.
It remains unclear whether US-Iran talks would resume or any agreement over Iran's nuclear ambitions was close. “It seems to be going very well in the Middle East with Iran,” Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One while returning to Washington from Phoenix, Arizona. “The main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon and that supersedes everything else.”
But in sharp contrast, the US President said he might end the ceasefire with Iran unless a long-term deal to end the conflict was agreed to before Wednesday.
“When the agreement is signed, the blockade [of Hormuz] ends," he said. "As soon as the agreement gets signed, that's when the blockade ends."
The US Central Command said 23 ships had complied with orders from American forces to turn around since the blockade of Iranian ports began.
Sticking points
Discussions between the two countries have stalled after disagreements around Iran's uranium enrichment programme. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday that uranium was “as sacred to us as Iranian soil” and would not be transferred out of the country.
“Iran's enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere,” Ismail Baghaei was quoted by Iranian state media as saying. “Transferring uranium to the US has not been an option.”
Iran also partially reopened its airspace on Saturday to international flights crossing the eastern part of its territory, the country's Civil Aviation Authority said.
