Strait of Hormuz remains sticking point amid tenuous ceasefire
The Strait of Hormuz must be reopened – and quickly – to free up the flow of energy in the Gulf and to ensure the ceasefire deal remains in place
by Summer Lane | April 10, 2026
The ceasefire with Iran is contingent upon the successful reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, according to President Trump, and the path forward is both complex and fraught with danger.
“Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” said President Trump on Thursday. “That is not the agreement we have!”
The president announced Tuesday evening that a ceasefire was in place – a 14-day extension following his previous threat to annihilate Iran as a civilization, if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened.
It seems that the Strait remains a sticking point, as the president suggested in his Thursday post, noting that Iran is still controlling the waterways.
“There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait — They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!” he said in a second statement.
And on Friday, President Trump added, “The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”
Data suggests that traffic in the Strait is still extremely limited.
A top energy advisor for Gulf Oil, Tom Kloza, said on CNN this Friday that “we’re losing about 10 million barrels a day of product…by my count, gasoline prices are up by about 40 percent from where they were at the end of February.”
This coming energy crisis is certainly quite an incentive for the president’s diplomatic team to accelerate and cement peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, this weekend.
“I think it’s going to be positive,” Vice President J.D. Vance said before departing, per LindellTV.
He continued, “We’ll, of course, see, as the President of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive. So, we’re going to try to have a positive negotiation. The president has given us some very clear guidelines.”
Photo: Pixabay
