The US and Iran have hardened their positions with President Donald Trump today ordering the Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz while Tehran has retorted it will not consider opening Hormuz until Washington lifts the blockade on shipping.Washington imposed the blockade during the ceasefire and Tehran called it a violation of the truce.In a threat to Iran, Trump said, “I have ordered the US Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz.”“There is to be no hesitation,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding that “additionally, our mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled-up level”.In another post, Trump said ships could not enter or leave Hormuz “without the approval of the US Navy”.“It is ‘Sealed up Tight’, until such time as Iran is able to make a deal,” he posted.Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of Iran’s lead negotiators, suggested that Tehran would not capitulate to Washington’s demands because of the siege.“A complete ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world’s economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.“Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible with such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” he said. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian echoed that position, stressing that diplomacy, not pressure, was necessary for peace talks.The comments come amid growing concerns that the threat of mines in the key waterway, as well as the standoff between the two navies, will leave the crucial trade route effectively blocked for some time. MarineTraffic tracking data shows an almost total standstill of vessels transiting through the waterway. Just one ship, the Greek-owned bulk carrier LB Energy, has made the journey in the past 12 hours.Amid the turmoil, crude oil prices hit $93.32 a barrel.The US Central Command said last night the number of ships it had turned around in its naval blockade of Iranian ports had risen to 31.Separately, the US military says it has boarded another sanctioned tanker involved in smuggling Iranian oil, as the maritime standoff between the two countries intensifies.US forces carried out “a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding” of a sanctioned vessel transporting oil from Iran in the Indian Ocean, the US Department of War said this morning in a post on X.Earlier in the day, Trump said “Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is” and declared that the US had “total control over the Strait of Hormuz”.“The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners’, who have been losing badly on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates’, who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!)…” he wrote on Truth Social.