Iran said it was suspending indirect negotiations with the United States and threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media, a sharp escalation that jolted energy markets and cast doubt over a fragile ceasefire between Tehran and Washington. The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian negotiators were halting communication with the US through mediators in protest at Israel’s widening military campaign.
State outlets said Tehran would move to "completely shut" the strait, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil passes. The threat, long held in reserve by Iran as its most potent economic lever, has rarely been invoked so explicitly, and its mere articulation was enough to push crude prices up by several percentage points within hours.
Iranian officials tied the decision directly to events in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have pressed their deepest ground advance in more than two decades, and to the continuing war in Gaza. By framing the suspension as a response to Israeli actions, Tehran sought to shift responsibility for any breakdown onto its adversaries while preserving the option of returning to talks later.
The move complicates a diplomatic track that President Donald Trump had described as close to a result. He had been weighing whether to approve a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the truce, while pressing for tougher language on Iran’s nuclear commitments and the reopening of Hormuz to shipping. The Iranian announcement leaves that draft in limbo.
A genuine closure of the strait would be difficult to sustain and would invite a forceful response, given the presence of US and allied naval forces in the Gulf and the damage an extended disruption would inflict on Iran’s own oil exports and those of its neighbours. Analysts have generally regarded the threat as a pressure tactic rather than a settled plan, but the risk of miscalculation rises each time the warning is issued.
For now the practical effect was felt first in markets and in the calculations of governments dependent on Gulf energy, several of which have spent months building fuel reserves against exactly this scenario. Whether the suspension proves a negotiating gambit or the prelude to a wider rupture will depend on how Washington responds and whether the fighting in Lebanon continues to expand.