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Recent reports highlight a “danger zone” within the Traffic Separation Scheme, a critical pathway for maritime traffic through the strait.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — On Thursday, Iranian semiofficial media released a chart signaling that the country’s Revolutionary Guard may have strategically placed sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict. This move could be an attempt to exert pressure on the U.S. amid the fragile calm of a recently established two-week ceasefire, just as new negotiations are poised to commence in Pakistan.
The charts, disseminated by the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies—both reputedly aligned with the Guard—depicted a “danger zone” label in Farsi over the Traffic Separation Scheme. This passage had been a key thoroughfare for ships navigating the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which a significant portion of the world’s oil and natural gas once flowed.
The chart implied that vessels should consider steering further north, closer to Iran’s mainland near Larak Island, a route some ships resorted to during the conflict.
These charts, dated from February 28 to Thursday, April 9, leave ambiguity around whether the Guard has since removed any mines from the area.
U.S. President Donald Trump posted a statement insisting that his surge of warships and troops will remain around Iran “until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with.”
Trump’s comments on his Truth Social platform appeared to be a way to pressure Iran.
“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the ‘Shootin’ Starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before,” Trump wrote.
He also insisted Iran would not be able to build nuclear weapons and “the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE.”
The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the ceasefire agreement, and world leaders expressed relief. But more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries after the deal was announced.
At the same time, Israel intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, hitting commercial and residential areas in Beirut. At least 182 people were killed Wednesday in the deadliest day of fighting there.
The violence threatened to scuttle what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
Iran’s parliament speaker said Wednesday that planned talks were “unreasonable” because Washington had broken three of Tehran’s 10 conditions for an end to the fighting. In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf objected to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, an alleged drone incursion into Iranian airspace after the ceasefire took effect and U.S. refusal to accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon. When the deal was announced, the prime minister of Pakistan, which served as a mediator, said in a social media post that it applied to “everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere.”
A New York-based think tank warned the ceasefire “hovers on the verge of collapse.”
The Soufan Center said Israel’s strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday added to the risk the deal would fall apart.
“Even if Lebanon was formally outside the deal, the scale of Israel’s strikes was likely to be viewed as escalatory, nonetheless,” it wrote in an analysis published Thursday. “Israel’s strikes can be understood both as an effort to drive a wedge between Iran and its proxies and as a response to being allegedly sidelined in the original ceasefire discussions.”
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