CENTCOM (US Central Command) began enforcing the blockade at 2pm GMT, but its operational order does not match the president's words. Trump ordered a blockade of "any and all Ships" in the strait. CENTCOM restricted enforcement to vessels entering or departing Iranian ports, with an explicit carve-out for non-Iranian-port traffic. The two positions are irreconcilable.
The narrowing reflects a legal calculation. Blocking an international strait without formal authority or allied consent violates UNCLOS in ways The Administration cannot easily defend. Blocking Iranian ports is closer to the 1962 Cuban quarantine precedent, though Kennedy's quarantine had a formal presidential proclamation.
The practical distinction may not matter. IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) mine corridors control who transits the strait, and CENTCOM's blockade controls what arrives at Iranian ports. Commercial shippers face competing jurisdictional claims over the same chokepoint. Hormuz traffic had recovered from single digits to double digits by Saturday. It fell back toward zero once enforcement began. The IRGC called the blockade "an illegal act" and "piracy."
