Iran reimposes restrictions on Strait of Hormuz, accusing US of violating deal to reopen it

CAIRO (AP) — Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway on Saturday after the U.S. said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.

Iran’s joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.

The announcement came the morning after U.S. President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait's reopening on Friday, the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the U.S., including on its nuclear program.

The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again on Friday on hopes the U.S. and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.

Control over the strait has proven to be one Iran’s main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the U.S. and Iran.

Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. An end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week’s ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that deal did not cover Lebanon.

But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week’s ceasefire agreement between Iran and the U.S. and warned the strait would not stay open if the U.S. blockade remained in effect.

A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran’s approval.

U.S. forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, U.S. Central Command said on X.

Despite the escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistani officials say the United States and Iran are still moving closer to a deal ahead of the April 22 ceasefire deadline.

The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. Speaking at a diplomatic forum in Antalya, Turkey, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the ceasefire in Lebanon was a positive sign, noting that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah had been a key sticking point before talks in Islamabad ended “very close” to an agreement last weekend.

Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Tehran, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Antalya, the military and Sharif's office said. Pakistan is expected to host a second round of talks between Iran and the U.S. early next week.

Even though mediators were optimistic, it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a truce it did not play a role in negotiating and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.

Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the U.S. from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defense.

Shortly before Trump’s post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump,” but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.

He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90% of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces “have not finished yet” with the dismantling of the group.

In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.

The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.

The war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

__ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Andrew Wilks in Antalya, Turkey contributed to this report.

FILE - Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri,File)

Women members of the Basij paramilitary, affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, march with their weapons during a state-organized rally in support of the supreme leader marking National Girl's Day in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Assem Abdallah reacts as he enters his friend apartment destroyed in a Israeli airstrike in Kfar Roumman, southern Lebanon, Friday, April 17, 2026, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

FILE - Two police officers walk in front of an anti-U.S. billboard depicting American aircraft being caught by Iranian armed forces in a fishing net beneath the words in Farsi, "The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, The entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground," in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer probably wishes he had never heard the name Peter Mandelson.

Starmer is again facing questions over his future. And again, it’s do with his misguided decision to appoint a self-professed “best pal” of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the plummiest of plum jobs in U.K. diplomacy — ambassador to the United States.

Two months ago when he was last imperiled over the appointment in late 2024, it was his judgment that was in question. Enough for some in his Labour Party, including its leader in Scotland, to urge him to stand down.

Now, he’s facing accusations that he misled Parliament over how Mandelson cleared the official hurdles to get the job in the first place.

If he’s found to have done so, he will be on very thin ice, not least because Starmer put integrity at the heart of his pitch to the British electorate at the July 2024 election to replace the scandal-plagued Conservatives.

“Starmer set himself up as the guy who always followed the rules, in stark contrast to, say, Boris Johnson, and he came to power effectively promising to ‘drain the swamp’,” said Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.

“Because of that, the latest revelations in the unholy mess created by his ill-judged appointment of Peter Mandelson mean that many voters now see him not only as a liar but as a hypocrite — and hypocrisy is one of the worst sins that any British politician can possibly commit,” he added.

On Thursday, The Guardian newspaper revealed that Mandelson, 72, failed security vetting before he took up the ambassadorial post in early 2025. That's a problem for Starmer, who has told Parliament that “full due process” was observed.

The government stressed that Starmer and other ministers only found out earlier this week that the Foreign Office had cleared Mandelson for the job despite the assessment. The fallout quickly led to the resignation of the Foreign Office’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins.

Starmer is trying to fend off questions about what he did or didn’t know about the vetting process, which would have involved an assessment of Mandelson’s suitability for the role in light of questions over his finances, his relationships, including that with Epstein, and his personality.

People familiar with the vetting process said that is standard practice for ministers not to be told, because of the sensitive personal information involved. They said the checks don’t produce a binary pass or fail, but a risk-based assessment that leaves a final decision to senior officials like Robbins.

Starmer is also facing questions over whether he had effectively given direction to officials to sidestep concerns over Mandelson.

Starmer said he is “absolutely furious” that he was kept in the dark, calling it “staggering” and “unforgivable.” He will make a statement to Parliament on Monday. Robbins, who was effectively fired by Starmer, is due to address lawmakers on Tuesday and may give a very different version of events.

Mandelson was a high-risk appointment, given he had twice resigned from Labour governments for financial or ethical missteps around the turn of the century, and his acquaintance with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

The calculation seemingly made by Starmer was clear: the risk was worth it as Mandelson’s lobbying skills and previous trade expertise would help persuade the Trump administration to spare the U.K. from some of the most onerous tariffs.

That appeared to work but by September 2025, the narrative changed after the release of emails that showed that Mandelson had supported Epstein even when he was facing jail for sex offenses. Though uncomfortable, Starmer hoped his decision to fire Mandelson would settle the matter.

However, the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Justice Department in January put an end to that. Starmer’s political judgment was questioned after emails in the Epstein files suggested that when Mandelson was a member of the Labour government, in 2009-2010, he had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to the disgraced financier.

British police launched a criminal probe, searched Mandelson’s two houses in London and western England. Mandelson was arrested on Feb. 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released the following morning after more than nine hours of questioning. He has not been charged, has denied any wrongdoing and does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

Starmer has repeatedly apologized to the British public and to the victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking for believing what he has termed “Mandelson’s lies.”

Despite Starmer’s dire personal ratings and the anticipated heavy electoral defeats for Labour in a raft of local and regional elections in May, the frenzy around his leadership had died down. His decision to not get the U.K. directly involved in the war in Iran chimed with the public mood.

Now his job is in danger again.

“This scandal is not ending,” said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party. “He has run out of people to sack, he has run out of places to hide, he has run out of authority. The buck stops with him. His position is untenable and he must go.”

Starmer's party commands a large majority in Parliament, so the prime minister's fate depends on what Labour lawmakers think.

On Monday, Starmer will gauge the mood, when he makes his statement. So far, few in his party have said he should go. If more Labour lawmakers put their heads above the parapet following a weekend of campaigning in their local electoral patches, he may be in real trouble.

Confidence in a leader can be a fragile thing, no matter how big their majority. Just ask Boris Johnson, who was elected with a thumping majority in 2019 and resigned both as prime minister and as a lawmaker three years later, after a string of scandals.

Peter Mandelson is seen outside his home in London, Friday, April 17, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosts a multinational virtual summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, not pictured, at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

Peter Mandelson is seen outside his home in London, Friday, April 17, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves after the multinational virtual summit and press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)