FEATURE | Iran threatens Persian Gulf neighbours as US blockade deadline passes

An Iranian military spokesperson called any US restrictions on international shipping "piracy," warning that if Iranian ports were threatened, no port in the gulf or Gulf of Oman would be secure. Any military vessels approaching the strait would violate the ceasefire, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said.

Trump said that Iran's navy had been "completely obliterated" during the war, adding that only a small number of "fast-attack ships" remained.

"Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea. It is quick and brutal," Trump wrote on social media, referring to the US strikes carried out against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.