Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz fully open to commercial shipping Friday, ending a seven-week closure that had choked off a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and sending Brent crude down about 10 percent in a single session. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted the announcement on X, tying the reopening to a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect Thursday evening. President Donald Trump welcomed the move hours later but said the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports would stay in place.

The reopening is the first concrete easing of the energy shock that has defined the U.S.-Iran war since late February, when strikes on Iran shut the waterway and pushed Brent above $119 a barrel last month. It removes, at least temporarily, the single biggest threat hanging over global fuel supplies and inflation, while leaving unresolved the harder questions of Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. cordon and wartime compensation.

What Araghchi said

"The passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire," Araghchi wrote, according to the BBC. He added that tankers must transit through a "coordinated route" set by Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, CNBC reported. The strait links the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and, before the war, carried roughly 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

Trump posted minutes later on Truth Social: "IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE. THANK YOU!" In a follow-up post, he said the U.S. naval blockade of Iran would remain "in full force and effect" until a permanent deal is reached, the BBC reported.

On the Street

Brent crude fell to about $88 a barrel from above $98 earlier in the session, a drop of roughly 10 percent, according to the BBC and CNBC. Before the war, Brent traded below $70. Equity markets rallied on the news: the S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent in early trading, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average each gained more than 1 percent, the BBC reported. Paris's CAC and Frankfurt's DAX climbed more than 2 percent, and London's FTSE 100 added about 0.5 percent.

The closure had triggered what CNBC called the biggest oil supply disruption in history. Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, told the Associated Press on Thursday that Europe had "maybe six weeks or so" of jet fuel left and that broader economic damage would compound the longer the waterway stayed shut. A third of global fertilizer chemicals also pass through the strait, and prices have climbed sharply since the war began, the BBC reported.

The counterparty

The announcement leaves U.S.-Iran diplomacy only partly unstuck. Trump agreed on April 7 to a two-week pause in fighting in exchange for Iran fully opening the waterway, but the strait stayed almost entirely shut as the two sides disputed the terms, CNBC reported. Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, accused Washington of violating the deal by allowing Israel to continue its campaign in Lebanon. Talks between Vice President JD Vance and Ghalibaf last weekend in Pakistan ended without an agreement.

Regional officials told the Associated Press that U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an "in-principle agreement" to extend the ceasefire, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. Mediators are focused on three sticking points: Iran's nuclear program, the strait and compensation for wartime damages. Trump, asked by reporters whether he would extend the pause, said: "If we're close to a deal, would I extend? Yeah, I would do that."

The blockade question

The PBS NewsHour, citing the Associated Press, said it was not immediately clear what Iran's reopening meant for the U.S. blockade of the strait. Trump's insistence that the cordon remain means Iranian oil exports stay bottled up even as foreign-flagged tankers can again move through the strait itself.

The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, the Associated Press reported. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Counterpoint

The lean mix on this cluster is center and left; Iranian officials dispute that the waterway was ever "closed" in a legal sense and frame the reopening as a concession contingent on U.S. behavior. Araghchi's statement explicitly ties the passage to the ceasefire window, not to the larger conflict, and Ghalibaf's earlier accusations signal that Tehran will treat any Israeli strike in Lebanon as grounds to reverse course. Right-leaning U.S. commentary on the deal's durability was not available by press time.

What's next

Trump said U.S. and Iranian negotiators could meet again this weekend in Pakistan for a second round of talks, CNBC reported. The current ceasefire, which CNBC reported began as a two-week pause on April 7, is set to expire next week.