Hegseth Signals Resumed Strikes as Strait Of Hormuz Blockade Hits 115 Ships

Pete Hegseth said the U.S. military is prepared to resume strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump’s Situation Room meeting ended without a deal, as the strait of hormuz blockade had already redirected 115 commercial ships. Trump spent around two hours in the White House Situation Room on Friday weighing next steps on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump and Hegseth

Trump said Friday he was heading to the Situation Room to make a “final determination” on the next steps involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. A White House official said no formal announcement followed the meeting, leaving Hegseth’s warning as the clearest public signal from Washington about military readiness.

Central Command said 115 commercial ships had been redirected by Friday as part of a U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports. For shipping companies and crews already moving through the Gulf, that figure shows the dispute had moved beyond statements in Washington and into maritime routing decisions.

Pakistan and Tehran

Marco Rubio met Mohammad Ishaq Dar in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Pakistan has served as a mediator in U.S.-Iran negotiations, putting Dar in the middle of a process that now sits alongside the maritime disruption and the White House review.

That diplomatic track ran in parallel with a harder line from former IRGC Navy commander Hossein Alaei, who said he warned senior Iranian official Ali Shamkhani three days before the outbreak of war that a new conflict was imminent. Alaei said the United States had moved to “Plan C” and that “a new war is coming.”

Iran and the Strait

Daftari said Iran is trying to separate talks on its nuclear program from efforts to end the war, and that Tehran has shifted attention toward the Strait of Hormuz. She said Iran’s leadership is using the strait as leverage while still pursuing its nuclear objectives.

Trump renewed his criticism of Pope Leo XIV on Saturday, saying the pontiff should be reminded that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon. The next concrete diplomatic opening in the record is the U.S.-Pakistan channel through Rubio and Dar, while the shipping disruption gives Washington and Tehran a direct measure of how far the standoff has already spread.