US-Vatican Feud Erupts Over Iran

Cairo- The Pope pushed back Monday on President Donald Trump's criticism of him over the US-Israel war in Iran, telling reporters that the Vatican's appeals for peace and reconciliation are rooted in the Gospel, and that he doesn't fear the Trump administration.

Leo XIV's comments came as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to have come to a halt, an intelligence firm said, and oil prices resumed their climb after Trump announced on social media that the United States would blockade the waterway.

US Central Command later said the blockade would involve all vessels entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, and that it would still allow ships travelling between non-Iranian ports to transit the strait, a step down from the president's earlier threat to blockade the entire strait.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the strait remained under Iran's "full control" and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones would get a "forceful response," two semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported.

The moves came after marathon US-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement, setting the stage for a showdown. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran's side in the talks, addressed Trump in a statement on his return to Iran: "If you fight, we will fight."

Netanyahu spoke with Vance after Pakistan talks ended

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he has spoken with US Vice President JD Vance about the negotiations in Pakistan.

Netanyahu said the pair spoke Sunday while Vance was on a plane returning from the negotiations in Islamabad.

Israel supports Trump's "strong stance to impose a naval blockade on Iran," Netanyahu said, and backs the US position that Iran must remove all of its enriched nuclear material and refrain from any more enrichment within Iran for several decades.

Maritime expert previews potential conflict in Strait of Hormuz

The coming days could be a stress test for the rules that are supposed to govern the Strait of Hormuz, according to Sal Mercogliano, a maritime historian at Campbell University.

It remains unclear, he added, how the US would track, intercept and board vessels moving from Iranian ports through the strait.

Any US or Iranian attempt to choke off the waterway would run counter to the principle of freedom of navigation, said Mercogliano, who has testified before the US Senate on commercial shipping and written for the US Naval Institute.

"We are challenging the concept of freedom of the seas," Mercogliano said on his "What's Going on With Shipping?" podcast, which has more than 600,000 followers on YouTube.

Asked to comment on the U.S. announcement of a blockade on Iran's ports and coastline, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Most likely, such actions will continue to negatively impact international markets, this can be assumed with a high degree of certainty."

Peskov told reporters: "Many details remain unclear and incomprehensible, so I would refrain from making any substantive comments at this time." (AP)