Live updates: Follow the latest news on US-Iran war
Iran has announced that ships in the Strait of Hormuz will be issued permits to pass by a new “Strait Authority”, as it asserts control over the shipping lane.
State media said sailors will be contacted by email to inform them of Iran's “transit regulations”, after which ships will “adjust to the framework and receive a transit permit”.
The proposal is billed as a “new mechanism” for managing the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran and its supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei have been teasing in recent days.
Control of the passage – which is crucial to the global oil trade – is one of the main unresolved issues in US-Iran peace talks. Iran has been widely condemned, by Gulf countries and the UN's maritime agency, among others, for disrupting shipping in the strait.
The US retaliated with a blockade of Iranian ports. In a flare-up on Monday, Iranian forces attacked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and launched missiles and drones at the UAE, most of which were intercepted by air defence systems. Three people were injured in a fire at an oil site in Fujairah after an Iranian drone attack.
It was the most significant escalation since the US-Iran ceasefire took effect nearly a month ago, and prompted international condemnation. Support for the UAE poured in from countries including Bahrain, Canada, Egypt, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UK, while India called Iran's attack “unacceptable” and urged an immediate halt to hostilities and strikes on civilian infrastructure.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is set to travel to Beijing on Tuesday, with the fragile US-Iran ceasefire appearing to hold after the most serious escalation since it began.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Mr Araghchi would discuss regional and international developments in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“Events in Hormuz make clear that there’s no military solution to a political crisis,” Mr Araghchi said on X before his departure. “As talks are making progress with Pakistan's gracious effort, the US should be wary of being dragged back into a quagmire by ill-wishers.”
The visit is Mr Araghchi’s first to China since US and Israeli strikes on February 28 triggered the war, which has killed thousands, spread to Lebanon and rocked the world's oil markets. It comes amid signs of strain within Iran’s leadership that have been increasingly apparent since US-Iran negotiations in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on April 11 to 12.
Those talks exposed competing positions between Iranian negotiators – Mr Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, over messaging, concessions and strategy in the strait.
Heavily sanctioned
The US President Donald Trump played down Monday’s attacks, describing them as “not heavy firing” and saying most incoming threats were intercepted. “We’ll let you know,” he said, when asked whether the ceasefire had been breached, adding that shipping continues despite the tensions.
Mr Ghalibaf said Iran was in control of the strait after the US's “violation of the ceasefire”.
“The new equation of the Strait of Hormuz is in the process of being solidified,” he wrote on X. “We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America; while we have not even begun yet.”
Mr Trump has also described Iran’s leadership as “fractured”, a characterisation analysts say is politically charged but increasingly reflected in factional disputes, even as Tehran insists it remains strategically unified. Mr Araghchi’s trip to Beijing carries significant weight given China’s role as a vital economic lifeline for heavily sanctioned Iran.
The two countries have deepened ties under a 25-year co-operation agreement covering energy, infrastructure and defence, making Beijing both an indispensable partner and a potential constraint on Tehran’s escalation calculus.
In his talks with Mr Yi, Mr Araghchi is expected to seek opposition to new US sanctions and support for an emergency session of the UN Security Council, which Washington has said it would block, blaming Tehran for the crisis.
Leverage of deterrence
Officials in Beijing have been notably restrained in their response to Monday’s violence, reflecting unease over Iranian strikes affecting civilian-linked energy infrastructure. China imports roughly a third of its crude oil through the strait, making stability in the waterway central to its energy security.
China has previously worked with Pakistan to push for peace talks. A joint initiative in March made five proposals: an immediate end to hostilities, follow-up peace talks, safety for non-military targets such as power plants, safe passage in the strait and respect for the UN Charter.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry last month denied US media reports suggesting that China was providing military support to Iran, saying Beijing acts “prudently and responsibly” in the export of such supplies. In 2023, China brokered a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Iran’s latest actions appear aimed at asserting greater leverage over the strait – a corridor carrying about 20 per cent of global oil supplies. Analysts say the waterway has become a new “leverage of deterrence” and a tool that Iran is using to maintain balance in a new equation in relations between itself and the West.
