Iran unable to find mines in Strait of Hormuz, US says

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WASHINGTON – Iran has been unable to open the Strait of Hormuz to more shipping traffic because it cannot locate all of the mines it laid in the waterway and lacks the capability to remove them, according to US officials.

The development is one reason Iran has not been able to quickly comply with the Trump administration’s admonitions to let more traffic pass through the strait.

It is also potentially a complicating factor as Iranian negotiators and a US delegation led by Vice-President J.D. Vance meet in Pakistan this weekend for peace talks.

Iran used small boats to mine the strait in March, soon after the US and Israel began their war against the country.

The mines, plus the threat of Iranian drone and missile attacks, slowed the number of oil tankers and other vessels passing through the strait to a trickle, driving up energy prices and providing Iran with its best leverage in the war.

Iran left a path through the strait open, allowing ships that pay a toll to pass through.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has issued warnings that ships could collide with sea mines, and semi-official news organisations have published charts showing safe routes.

Those routes are limited in large part because Iran mined the strait haphazardly, US officials said.

It is not clear that Iran recorded where it put every mine. And even when the location was recorded, some mines were placed in a way that allowed them to drift or move, according to the officials.

As with landmines, removing nautical mines is far more difficult than placing them.

The US military lacks robust mine removal capabilities, relying on littoral combat ships equipped with mine-sweeping capabilities. Iran also does not have the capability of quickly removing mines, even the ones it planted.

In a social media post on April 7 discussing a pause in the US-Israeli war with Iran, US President Donald Trump said a two-week ceasefire was contingent on the “complete, immediate, and safe opening” of the Strait of Hormuz.

On April 8, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the strait would be open to traffic “with due consideration of technical limitations”.

American officials have said Mr Araghchi’s comment about technical limitations was a reference to Iran’s inability to quickly find or remove the mines.

Mr Araghchi is now in Islamabad for meetings on April 11 with Mr Vance. Given Mr Trump’s demands to open the strait, the issue of how quickly safe passage through the waterway can be increased is likely to be a point of discussion.

The US military sought to destroy Iran’s navy, sinking ships and targeting naval bases. But Iran has hundreds of small boats that it can use to harass ships or lay mines. Destroying all of those small boats has proved impossible.

Even before Iran began laying mines, threats from its leaders quickly disrupted global shipping and sent oil prices up sharply.

On March 2, a senior official with the Revolutionary Guard announced that the strait was closed and claimed Iran would set ships “ablaze” if they entered the waterway, according to state media.

In the days after that threat, Iran began mining the strait, even as the US intensified strikes on Iranian naval assets. At the time, American officials said Iran was not planting mines quickly or efficiently.

Because it was difficult to track the small boats deploying the mines, the US is uncertain precisely how many Iran has placed in the strait or where they are located. NYTIMES