Iran re-closes Strait of Hormuz within hours: U.S. destroyer fires in first seizure, Vance heads to Pakistan, and IRGC lashes Araghchi in public split

Friday turned into a head-spinning loop. At 9:12 a.m. Tehran time, state radio trumpeted the strait "completely open" and cameras caught a supertanker gliding past Kish Island. Brent cratered 10% in 22 minutes. Then, just after lunch, the same announcer grimly declared the waterway "closed until the United States ends its illegal blockade." Oil instantly clawed back half its losses and traders started calling the session "the world’s shortest bear market." The reversal now looks less like choreography and more like knife-fighting inside the regime. The Institute for the Study of War says IRGC commanders have spent the afternoon openly scorning Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, accusing him of caving to U.S. pressure by ordering the brief reopening. One IRGC-linked Telegram channel called the morning move "naïve" and warned that "appeasers will answer to the nation."

The Strait began to look like a shooting gallery on Sunday. A U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Dewey, intercepted a 300-meter crude carrier flying the flag of the Marshall Islands after it tried to bolt west through the blockade net. Navy lawyers had quietly re-flagged the ship as a sanctions violator on Friday night, giving the Dewey legal cover to board. When the tanker refused repeated radio calls and turned hard to port, the destroyer fired three bursts from its 5-inch deck gun across the bow, then disabled the rudder with a well-placed shot to the stern. No casualties were reported, but the vessel is now anchored under American guard off Fujairah. Pentagon officials call it the first kinetic seizure since the blockade began; Tehran calls it "piracy" and has vowed "a crushing response." Oil traders reopened Sunday evening with Brent up another 6%, shrugging off earlier rumors of a brief reopening.

The White House never blinked on the blockade, but it did open a side door. Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn, Trump repeated his morning vow: the blockade "will remain in full force" until Iran agrees to dismantle any mine-laying capability and opens its nuclear sites to snap inspections. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added that Vice President JD Vance was "already wheels-up" for his second unannounced trip to Islamabad in three weeks. Pakistani officials confirmed Vance landed before dusk Saturday and went straight into a secure facility with Iranian envoys. The goal, per a senior U.S. official: "test whether Tehran’s diplomats can deliver what their generals keep torpedoing."

Tehran’s internal rift spilled into prime time. Parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf told state television late Saturday that "there will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy," a pointed slap at Foreign Minister Araghchi’s earlier maneuver. Qalibaf, a former IRGC air-force commander, framed the brief reopening as a betrayal of the Revolutionary Guard’s martyrs and hinted that parliament may summon Araghchi for impeachment hearings as early as Monday. IRGC-linked media spent Sunday replaying clips of the speaker’s speech while super-imposing crosshairs over Araghchi’s face — a not-so-subtle threat.