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It was 4 pm, Paris time, on Monday, April 13th, when American forces launched their blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to regain control from the Iranians. Donald Trump warns that Iranian ships defying the blockade will be immediately destroyed. Tehran denounces piracy and threatens Gulf ports.
This text corresponds to a part of the above report’s transcript. Click on the video to watch it in full.
The Strait of Hormuz at the heart of a naval battle. Since 4 pm on Monday, April 13th afternoon, the United States has imposed a blockade on the entire maritime zone. Donald Trump wants to show himself as uncompromising: “Iran can no longer trade now and we will keep it that way. We cannot let a country blackmail the whole world, and that’s what they were doing”, declared the American president.
What is the goal for Americans? Faced with the failure of negotiations with Iran, the American president hopes to secure the financial windfall of oil for the Iranians. During the conflict, the country was able to export over one and a half million barrels per day and continue to finance its war effort. On a map, several ships that Iran considers non-hostile, mainly Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani, were still passing through the strait in the last few hours.
So, what is the blockade in the strait? Donald Trump wants to prevent the passage of ships leaving or entering an Iranian port and promises to destroy Iranian ships that oppose the blockade. For this, the Pentagon has deployed two destroyers, the USS Peterson and USS Murphy. The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln is also in the area, as shown by satellite images reported by the BBC.
According to experts, American military could intercept ships that do not comply with the blockade using helicopters or zodiacs: “There are commandos who will board and take control of the ship and then move it to a waiting area, probably, I suppose, in the Sultanate of Oman. We know they have the means to do it on the spot”, explains Sylvain Domergue, Ph.D. in geography and lecturer at Sciences Po Bordeaux, author of Geopolitics of maritime spaces (Armand Colin, 2025).
Several countries have protested against this blockade. China calls for unrestricted reopening of the zone. Emmanuel Macron and the British Prime Minister have announced the upcoming organization of a conference to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
