Iran closes Strait of Hormuz amid escalating standoff with US

Motorists ride past a giant billboard of slain Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Valiasr Square in Tehran, on Sunday. PIC/AFP

Iran reversed its decision to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.

The escalating standoff over the critical choke point threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict, even as mediators expressed confidence that a new deal was within reach.

The sun rises behind a tanker anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, on Saturday. PIC/AP/PTI

The strait is closed until the US blockade is lifted, Iran said on Saturday night. Hours earlier, two gunboats from Iran's Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said. It reported that the tanker and crew were safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination.

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