LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Iran's foreign minister announced this morning on social media that the Strait of Hormuz is fully open, but that vessels must pass through a, quote, "coordinated route" announced by Iran's maritime authorities. Now, President Trump says the U.S. Navy will maintain its blockade of Iranian ports until a peace deal is reached. On Thursday, Defense officials said that more than a dozen ships made the, quote, "wise choice" of turning around. For more on what all this means, we're joined by Quil Lawrence from NPR's national security team. Good morning, Quil.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Morning.
FADEL: OK, so we see this tweet - or this social media post that the strait is potentially reopening. Is it really open? And do we know why Iran has made the decision?
LAWRENCE: Well, what we had going on here was almost like two blockades.
FADEL: Right.
LAWRENCE: And Iran controls that strait. The breaking news this morning is that Iran has announced that it's reopened it to commercial shipping, so long as that shipping is on this narrow route that previously was delineated by Iranian authorities. Iran's foreign minister said on social media that this was in response to the ceasefire with Israel. And oil prices dropped right after. But shipping companies are bound to be a little bit cautious as they assess the risks of going through a strait that everyone feared the Iranians had mined.
And the U.S. has been and is still blocking ships from exiting or entering Iranian ports, which is to strangle Iran's economy. I mean, that - blockades are an act of war. But in this case, it's a negotiating pressure tactic as well. And at yesterday's Pentagon news briefing, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the blockade is the polite way to go with this. But he mentioned the other way, which would be bombing Iran's civilian infrastructure, which could be a war crime.
FADEL: OK, so a lot of threats there before Iran made this announcement, which they say is about the ceasefire. What about U.S. forces in the region?
LAWRENCE: Still building up. You know, the carrier group, the Ford has now broken the record for the longest rotation since Vietnam with nearly 10 months at sea. More troops underway. But President Trump has said several times he thinks the negotiations are working and that it won't be necessary to even extend the ceasefire with Iran.
It will certainly - seems to be helping that Israel and Lebanon have announced this 10-day ceasefire. That was kind of a second front in the war from the Iranian perspective and the Israeli perspective. So, and of course, it's important to note that this really was a war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Shiite militia, Hezbollah, which - though I know you know better than anyone that millions of Lebanese civilians who are caught up in the shelling don't really...
FADEL: Yeah.
LAWRENCE: ...Care much about that distinction.
FADEL: Quil, you know, I think what has really struck me as this war has been going on is the many of Hegseth's comments that are really overtly religious. Can you say more about that?
LAWRENCE: Yeah, in Defense briefings throughout the course of this war, Hegseth has regularly read scripture and specifically talked about Jesus Christ. Yesterday, he directly compared the U.S. media's negative coverage of the war with the Pharisees in the New Testament persecuting Jesus. And I'm not paraphrasing. That's exactly what he said.
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PETE HEGSETH: I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees. Not all of you, not all of you. But the legacy, Trump-hating press.
LAWRENCE: This is just after, as you know, President Trump got real pushback for appearing to compare himself with Jesus. But Hegseth attends a particular Protestant church. And he routinely talks in these religious terms that really might alienate hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops who are Jewish or Muslim or even Catholic.
FADEL: That's NPR's Quil Lawrence. Thank you, Quil.
LAWRENCE: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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