US says 23 ships turned back since Iran blockade began

A message attributed to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Saturday that the country’s navy was ready to inflict “new bitter defeats” on Iran’s enemies.

The statement was posted on a Telegram channel and appeared to mark Army Day.

“Iran’s navy is ready to inflict new bitter defeats on enemies,” the message read.

Two vessels, including an Indian-flagged supertanker, were forced back out of the Strait of Hormuz after being approached by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval units, shipping monitor TankerTrackers said on Saturday.

It said audio recordings indicated IRGC gunboats fired during the encounter as the ships were redirected westward.

One of the vessels was a very large crude carrier transporting about two million barrels of Iraqi oil, it added.

“Meanwhile, India is still importing Iranian oil. With friends like these,” TankerTrackers said.

The burial site of slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has not yet been determined, Astan Quds Razavi said on Saturday.

The religious foundation, which manages the Imam Reza Holy Shrine, said the exact location for burying the former Iranian leader in the northeastern city of Mashhad, had not been finalized.

Nearly two months after his death in US-Israeli airstrikes, Khamenei’s body has not yet been buried and there has been no official update on its status.

Turkey’s natural gas contract with Iran is due to expire in the coming months, but no negotiations are currently under way on an extension, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Saturday.

Bayraktar said the two countries could hold discussions on a possible extension, but none had started so far.

Speaking on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum in Antalya, he also said Ankara was seeking to diversify gas supplies, including Russian liquefied natural gas.

Iran said on Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz had returned to tight military control and would remain under strict oversight unless the United States ensured full freedom of navigation for vessels traveling to and from Iran.

Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said Iran had restored the strait to its previous status, with the strategic waterway now under strict management and control by the armed forces.

“So long as the United States does not ensure full freedom of navigation for vessels traveling from Iran to destinations and from destinations to Iran, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will remain under strict control and in its previous state,” the statement said.