Here's the latest
• US blockade: The US military blockade on Iranian ports started at 10 a.m. ET today, after weekend peace talks in Pakistan faltered. President Donald Trump said the US will sink any Iranian “fast attack ships” that come near the blockade.
• Pope criticism: Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV said he has “no fear of the Trump administration” and will continue to speak out after criticism from Trump, who denounced his stance on the Iran war and said he was “terrible for foreign policy.”
• Markets roiled: Oil prices again topped $100 a barrel and stock markets fell as the collapsed weekend talks and blockade are set to further disrupt the global economy.
• Lebanon talks: The focus of the Israeli military is on Lebanon during the two-week ceasefire with Iran, a source says, ahead of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon tomorrow. Over 2,000 people have been reported killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon since March 2.
No deal by the end of the ceasefire will not be "pleasant" for Iran, Trump says
President Donald Trump said if a deal is not reached with Iran to end the war by the end of the ceasefire, “it won’t be pleasant for them.”
A reporter asked the president if his threat that “a whole civilization will die” still stands if the two-week ceasefire ends without an agreement.
“I don’t want to comment on that, but it won’t be pleasant for them. Let me put it that way,” Trump responded.
Hours before the president’s deadline last week, Trump announced he’d agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran. Over the weekend, however, peace talks in Pakistan faltered, with Vice President JD Vance saying Iran would not commit to forgoing a nuclear weapon.
Before the pause in fighting, Trump also threatened to destroy Iran’s power plants and said it “makes no difference to me” whether both sides make a deal.
Trump says "other countries" are offering to help with blockade
President Donald Trump said at the White House today that “other countries” — though he did not specify which — are offering to help the United States’ blockade of Iranian ports.
“We don’t need other countries, frankly,” the president said. “But they’ve offered their services.”
“We’ll let it be known, probably tomorrow,” he added.
Italian PM slams Trump for "unacceptable" comments about Pope Leo
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has criticized US President Donald Trump for his “unacceptable” remarks about Pope Leo XIV.
On Sunday evening Trump denounced the pope’s stance on the Iran war, calling the pontiff “terrible for foreign policy.”
“We don’t like a pope that’s going to say that it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon. … He’s a man that doesn’t think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world,” Trump told reporters, adding, “I’m not a fan of Pope Leo.”
The pontiff — who has been increasingly vocal about the US and Israel’s war with Ira — pushed back against the criticism saying he has “no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel.”
The world is about to get its last delivery of pre-war oil
The last oil tankers that left the Strait of Hormuz before the war are about to reach their destination.
Two tankers delivering oil from Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia that transited the strait prior to February 28 are still on the water, according to a note from JPMorgan analysts sent to clients this past Sunday. One, the Ocean Thunder, is set to deliver crude oil from Iraq to Malaysia on Saturday. The other, named the Yuan Ju Wan, is scheduled to deliver jet fuel to Australia on Sunday.
Once those two deliveries are completed, the world will have exhausted its supply of pre-war crude and fuel.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has blocked off 12 million barrels of oil from the world each day, which has created a profound supply shortage. Governments, companies and consumers have dipped deep into reserves, drawing down 250 million barrels of crude in storage since the war broke out. That works out to 6.6 million barrels a day, making up more than half the choked-off crude.
But the stockpiles are running out, and Western countries could reach operational minimums by early May, JPMorgan said.
Trump's post depicting himself as Jesus seemingly deleted amid friction with pope over Iran
A post that depicted Donald Trump as Jesus appears to have been deleted from the president’s social media account amid friction between Trump and the pope over the Iran war.
The image, which showed Trump as a Christ-like figure healing the sick while surrounded by American flags and eagles, was posted to Truth Social late Sunday night shortly after the president criticized Pope Leo XIV for speaking against the war with Iran.
As of late Monday morning, the image no longer appeared on the president’s feed, and a prior link to the post now brings up a page that says the “content is no longer available.”
The post was widely criticized as blasphemous. CNN has asked the White House why the post was deleted.
Some context: Pope Leo XIV said Monday he has “no fear of the Trump administration” and will continue to speak out after criticism from the president, who denounced his stance on the Iran war and said he was “terrible for foreign policy.”
Leo, the first American pope, has become increasingly vocal about the Iran war, last week condemning Trump’s rhetoric against the people of Iran as “truly unacceptable.”
These are the Iranian ports affected by the US blockade
The US blockade on Iranian ports is now in effect after weekend peace talks with Iran in Pakistan collapsed.
President Donald Trump issued a new threat today and said the US will sink any Iranian “fast attack ships” that come near the blockade.
Here’s a look at the ports impacted, which include those in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman alongside the Strait of Hormuz:
Trump issues new threat amid US blockade of Iranian ports as economic fallout fears grow
President Donald Trump issued a new threat to Tehran this morning, saying the US will sink any Iranian ships that come near the US military blockade of Iran’s ports, which started at 10 a.m. ET.
Iran’s acting defense minister said Monday the country’s armed forces are on “maximum combat alert” and are prepared for “any scenario,” warning that any aggression against Tehran would draw a “harsh and decisive response,” according to remarks broadcast on Iran’s state-run television.
Meanwhile, concerns are mounting over how the latest move by the US will affect the global economy.
Here’s a quick recap of the latest developments in the conflict:
- Qatar said in a call with Iran that maritime routes should not be used as a “bargaining chip,” while warning of the negative impacts of such actions on global energy supplies and international security.
- France and the United Kingdom will convene talks aimed at “restoring freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz, French President Emmanuel Macron said on X today, adding that this would be a “strictly defensive” mission.
- The Kremlin has criticized Trump’s decision to begin a blockade of Iranian ports. “Such actions will likely continue to negatively impact international markets. This can be assumed with a high degree of certainty,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
- The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it had been informed that “maritime access restrictions are being enforced affecting Iranian ports and coastal areas.” Ship-tracking data showed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz thinning hours before the blockade began.
- Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is of “paramount importance,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said while drawing attention to the economic impact of the war. Von der Leyen added that there can be no stability in the Middle East or Persian Gulf while Lebanon is “in flames.”
- Von der Leyen’s comments come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “solid, deeper security zone” held by Israel inside southern Lebanon, one day before the two countries are set to begin direct talks in the US.
- An Israeli military official said its focus has shifted to Lebanon during a two-week ceasefire with Iran. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) view Lebanon as the “main operational front” for now.
- Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that he hopes that tomorrow’s negotiations with Israel in Washington will result in a ceasefire.
CNN’s Aileen Graef, Hanna Ziady, Eugenia Yosef, Joseph Ataman, Nadeen Ebrahim, Tim Lister, Anna Chernova, Oren Liebermann, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Billy Stockwell and Sarah Tamimi contributed to this report.
This post has been updated with additional reporting.
Lebanese president hopes Tuesday talks with Israel result in ceasefire
Lebanon hopes that tomorrow’s negotiations with Israel in Washington will result in a ceasefire, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said today during a meeting with Italy’s foreign minister in Beirut.
“These negotiations would be handled by a Lebanese negotiating team to put an end to hostilities,” Aoun said, “followed by practical steps to reinforce stability in the south in particular and in Lebanon more broadly.”
Aoun added that talks “are the responsibility of the Lebanese state, and no other party, because this is a sovereign matter in which Lebanon has no partner.” The comment was an oblique reference to Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-aligned Lebanese Shiite militant group with which Israel has traded blows for years.
The president also said that Lebanon has implemented “security measures” at the Rafik Hariri Airport in Beirut and the country’s ports to “prevent arms smuggling or the flow of illicit funds.”
Israel currently occupies much of southern Lebanon and continues to strike targets deep within the country. Lebanese authorities say that more than 2,000 people have been killed and over 6,500 wounded since March 2.
The talks between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats under US supervision were scheduled amid fears that the Israeli strikes in Lebanon could threaten a delicate ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran.
While Iran and Pakistan, which mediated talks between Iran and the US, say that Lebanon is included in the ceasefire, Israel and the US say that Lebanon isn’t part of the deal reached last week.
Israel's expanding operation in Lebanon could threaten its cultural riches, experts warn
Israel said that it’s expanding ground operations in southern Lebanon, targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah to protect residents in northern Israel. But international organizations have cautioned that Lebanese cultural heritage sites shouldn’t be placed in the firing line.
UNESCO said earlier this month that 39 cultural properties in Lebanon, including several in the south, had been granted “the highest level of legal protection against attack and use for military purposes.”
Israel’s campaign seeks to expel “every resident south of the Litani (River) who isn’t returning – and won’t return – until security is guaranteed here for the northern residents,” said Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz.
Now, Lebanon’s heritage is “severely threatened,” according to the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage, a fund dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage in conflict zones.
The organization announced last month a fund devoted to the protection of monuments and archaeological sites in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre – which has been subject to recent evacuation orders – was an ancient Phoenician city that founded “prosperous colonies such as Cadiz and Carthage and according to legend, was the place of the discovery of purple pigment,” according to UNESCO.
Today, the city has important archaeological remains, mostly from Roman times, the UN agency said.
Elsewhere, 12th century Beaufort Castle, which overlooks the Litani River, is recognized as “one of the best-preserved Crusader-period castles in the Near East and constitutes a distinguished archetype of medieval military architecture,” said UNESCO.
UK calls for Lebanon to be "included urgently" in US-Iran ceasefire
The United Kingdom is calling for Lebanon to be “included urgently” in the current ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said today, also condemning Israel’s continued attacks on the country.
The prime minister also said that, while the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah “must disarm,” he is “equally clear” that Israel’s strikes on the country “are wrong.”
Referencing US President Donald Trump’s threat last week that “a whole civilization will die” if Iran did not agree to a deal, Starmer said that Trump’s language was “wrong.”
Starmer also discussed the Strait of Hormuz, which is still effectively closed by Iran, saying that “freedom of navigation is vital and must be restored.”
Separately today, Britain’s defense ministry said that it had deployed military planners to US Central Command to “explore options for making the Strait of Hormuz accessible and safe once hostilities have ceased.”
Iran warns US Navy ships that attempt to block its ports will be "sent to the bottom of the sea"
A senior Iranian lawmaker has warned the US that any Navy vessels that attempt to block Iran’s ports will be “sent to the bottom of the sea”.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of Iran’s Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, rejected US President Donald Trump’s threat to blockade Iran’s ports as militarily baseless propaganda, according to Iran’s state-run Press TV.
Boroujerdi said the US has “no real ability” to carry out the threat, and said other NATO members would not support such a move.
Iran says its forces are on “maximum combat alert"
Iran’s acting defense minister said Monday the country is prepared for “any scenario” and warned that any aggression against it would result in a “harsh and decisive response,” according to remarks broadcast on Iran’s state-run television.
Brigadier General Majid Ibn Reza said Iran’s armed forces are on “maximum combat alert,” Press TV reported.
US President Donald Trump said the US Navy will begin blockading Iranian ports and “interdict” every ship that has paid a toll to Tehran, after peace talks between both countries faltered over the weekend.
Separately, Iran’s Defense Ministry claimed it had substantial military stockpiles, according to comments carried by the semi-official Young Journalists Club, an outlet affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Defense Ministry spokesperson Sardar Talaei-Nik said the armed forces’ “strategic reserves,” including missiles and drones, were “sufficiently and adequately supplied before the war,” the outlet reported.
More than 5,000 people killed in Iran and Lebanon since conflict began, authorities say
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Iran and Lebanon since conflict broke out in the region six weeks ago, according to recent tolls given by local authorities.
At least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel began strikes on the country in February, Iranian state media Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) reported yesterday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said today that at least 2,089 people have been killed there since Israel began its attacks on March 2. At least 166 children are among those killed, it said.
Israel began attacks on what it says are Hezbollah targets in the country exactly six weeks ago, and has continued to conduct strikes following the current ceasefire between Iran and the US.
Hundreds of people have also been reported killed, as a result of the conflict, in Iraq, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, the occupied West Bank, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia since February 28, according to local authorities.
US naval blockade tests Iran's pain threshold
Donald Trump believes economic pain will do what weeks of air strikes couldn’t: break Tehran’s will and force it to concede. But some experts say this might be misreading Iran’s threshold for pain.
The blockade began at 10 a.m. ET today, after weekend peace talks in Pakistan ended without a breakthrough. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has vowed to retaliate, and Iranian officials have warned of the ripple effects on the global economy, including at the cost of the American consumer.
“Iran has several options for offsetting the economic effects of the US blockade, but their overall impact is uncertain,” Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for the Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, told CNN, adding that Tehran “could seek to ramp up oil and gas exports through alternative routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz.”
This may include gas exports via pipelines to Iraq, Turkey and Armenia, Alhasan said, or oil exports via its Neka oil terminal in the Caspian Sea.
“Iran could also increase the smuggling of fuel through its long land border with Pakistan or evade the blockade by blending its own oil with Iraqi oil, as it has done in the past,” Alhasan noted.
In addition, Iran could choose a military route, by launching attacks on US naval vessels or persuading the Houthis in Yemen to attempt a blockade of the Bab El Mandeb Strait, Alhasan told CNN.
In all cases, by blocking Iranian ports, the US is opening a new chapter in this war, testing Iran’s pain threshold in different directions.
Trump threatens to sink Iranian ships that come near blockade
President Donald Trump issued a new threat to Iran Monday morning, saying the US will sink any Iranian ships that come near the US blockade on Iranian ports.
Trump claimed that while Iran’s navy has been “completely obliterated,” the US has not sunk its “fast attack ships,” warning that if they come near the blockade, the US Navy would deploy the same tactics used against alleged drug boats.
“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,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Middle East crude oil output tumbles in March
The Middle East’s oil output plunged in March, as a near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz choked off exports and forced some of the world’s biggest producers to make less crude.
Crude oil production among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell by almost 7.9 million barrels to 20.79 million barrels a day, a 27% decline, OPEC said in its monthly oil market report today.
The report highlights how disruption to the Strait of Hormuz has upended oil production in the Middle East.
Among OPEC members, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates slashed output by the most last month. Iran also posted a small decline in production, according to the report, as did some other OPEC members, including Algeria, Congo, Libya and Gabon. Nigeria, by contrast, posted a small increase in oil output.
“Disruptions to shipping operations in the region raised persistent concerns about regional supply flows,” OPEC said in its report.
The group kept its outlook for global oil demand unchanged from last month, forecasting growth of 1.4 million barrels a day this year. Demand weakness in the second quarter as a result of the Middle East conflict would be “transitory” and offset by growth later in the year, OPEC said.
Maritime routes should not be used as a “bargaining chip," Qatar says
Qatar said today in a call with Iran that maritime routes should not be used as a “bargaining chip,” while warning of the negative impacts of such actions on global energy supplies and international security.
The Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s crude oil flows, has been effectively closed by Tehran since the conflict began. The US military launched a blockade on all traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports today, which was due to start at 10 a.m. ET.
In today’s call, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, expressed to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi the “importance of keeping maritime routes open and ensuring freedom of navigation.”
The Qatari leader also expressed to Iran the “need for all parties to respond positively to ongoing mediation efforts, calling for dialogue and peaceful means to address the root causes of the crisis.”
Maritime coordination center issues advisory on "access restrictions" for Iranian ports
In an advisory issued a short while ago, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the British navy’s maritime coordination center, said it has been informed that as of 2 p.m. UTC (10 a.m. ET) today, “maritime access restrictions are being enforced affecting Iranian ports and coastal areas.”
That time corresponds with the timeframe given by the US military, which said it will enforce a blockade on all traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports from 10 a.m. ET today.
The restrictions will be enforced at locations along the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea east of the Strait of Hormuz, UKMTO said, and will encompass “the entirety of the Iranian coastline, including ports and energy infrastructure.”
The restrictions will also apply to vessels of any flag that engage with “Iranian ports, oil terminals, or coastal facilities,” it said. Neutral vessels that are currently at Iranian ports “have been granted a limited grace period to depart,” UKMTO added.
Further guidelines for vessels about the restrictions are in development, it said.
Iran's president condemns Trump's "insult" to Pope Leo
In the latest development related to President Donald Trump’s fierce criticism of Pope Leo XIV yesterday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned what he called the “insult” to the pontiff.
Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy for communications at Pezeshkian’s office, also condemned Trump’s comments, comparing the so-called “character assassination” of the pope to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some context: In comments made yesterday, Trump said he was “not a fan of Pope Leo,” denouncing his stance on the Iran war and saying that the pontiff is “terrible for foreign policy.”
Leo pushed back against the criticism today, telling reporters: “I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the church is here to do.”
Pope Leo had "consistent message" in response to Trump on plane
I was among a group of journalists who traveled with the Pope to Algeria.
He came to the back of the plane, as his custom, and he was asked about US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post, that extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo and he had really a consistent message that was “I am not a politician, I don’t want to get into a back and forth, but I am going to continue to speak out.”
And he said “blessed are the peacemakers.”
