Saturday News Updates: Iran Says the Strait Is Closed – 6/20/26
Hi all, Ben here. It’s Saturday, and there’s a lot to get through, so let’s get right into it.
Top stories we’re tracking today:
Iran has announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, citing U.S. and Israeli violations of the Memorandum of Understanding
CENTCOM claims the Strait remains open and “safe”
An Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf and including top officials from diplomacy, security, banking, and energy, has departed for talks in Switzerland
Israel continues its assault on southern Lebanon, with dozens killed overnight and the civilian death toll climbing past 4,000 since March
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz openly says Israel is “destroying” Lebanese villages so residents “will never see them standing” again
Donald Trump has escalated his attacks on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who fired back defending Italy’s sovereignty
JD Vance hit the airwaves to defend the administration’s Iran and Lebanon policy
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert accused his own country, in Haaretz, of conducting “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank
Trump continues posting about Fauci, polls on calling Democrats “Dumbocrats,” and Netanyahu’s “shaky reelection chances”
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Now let’s get into it.
Iran Announces the Closure of the Strait
Let’s start with the big one. Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is closing again. Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters announced the closure, and the reasoning they gave is pretty straightforward. They say the United States failed to live up to the first clause of the Memorandum of Understanding that Trump himself signed at Versailles, and that Israel has continued bombing southern Lebanon in open violation of the ceasefire. We have some more striking details to report on this that we’ll get to in a moment — plus the actual audio of Iran announcing the closure of the Strait. It is quite something to hear if for yourself.
