Japan sources more than 90 percent of its crude oil imports from the Middle East and is heavily dependent on exports transiting the key waterway.

Iran says Japanese ships will be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, in the latest sign that Tehran has started pursuing a selective blockade of the strategic waterway.

“We have not closed the strait. In our opinion, the strait is open. It is closed only to ships belonging to our enemies, countries that attack us. For other countries, ships can pass through the strait ,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Japan’s Kyodo News late on Friday.

“We are talking to them to find a way to pass safely. We are ready to provide them with safe passage. All they need to do is contact us to discuss how this route will be,” Araghchi said, according to an English transcript of the interview shared on his Telegram account.

Japan sources more than 90 percent of its crude oil imports from the Middle East and is heavily dependent on exports transiting the strait, but the waterway has been de facto closed since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned in the early days of the war that its forces would set “ablaze” any ships trying to transit the waterway, bringing marine traffic to a near standstill.

Over the past week, however, Iran has toned down the rhetoric to say the strait is only closed to Tehran’s enemies.

Japan may soon join the small cohort of countries – mainly China, India, and Pakistan – whose vessels have been allowed to transit the waterway in recent days, with approval from Iranian authorities.

Lloyd’s List, a shipping and maritime information service, separately reported that 10 ships have transited the strait by sailing close to Iran’s coastline – a route that is emerging as a “safe corridor” for shipping.

The latest ship, a Greek bulk carrier, transited on Friday by passing close to Iran’s Larak island , Lloyd’s said, while broadcasting the message “Cargo Food for Iran”.

While ships have been transiting on a case-by-case basis, Lloyd’s List reported that the IRGC is developing a more coordinated vetting and registration system.

As the war on Iran hits three weeks, a handful of countries – among them US allies – have already started lobbying Tehran to reopen the strait or allow their ships safe passage.

Japan, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom earlier this week issued a joint statement expressing their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”.

Iraq, Malaysia, China, India and Pakistan have all reportedly held direct talks with Tehran to discuss the matter, according to Lloyd’s.

Araghchi’s remarks to Kyodo follow a call with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Tuesday, during which Tokyo expressed concern about the large number of Japanese vessels currently stranded in the Gulf, according to a Japanese readout of the call.

United States President Donald Trump says he is considering “winding down” the military operations in Iran even as his administration deploys 2,500 additional marines to the region and asks Congress for more money to fund the war.

In a social media post on Friday, Trump said the US was “getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East”.

The mixed messages from Trump came after another climb in oil prices plunged the US stock markets. His administration also announced that it was lifting sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling the soaring fuel prices.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a post on X shortly after Trump’s message, said “the President and the Pentagon predicted it would take approximately 4-6 weeks to achieve this mission.

“Tomorrow [Saturday] marks week 3 – and the US Armed Forces are doing an exceptional job,” Leavitt wrote. “Day by day, the Iranian Regime is being crippled, and their ability to threaten the United States and our allies is being significantly weakened.”

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, said four to six weeks is “the new number coming from the Trump administration about when Operation Epic Fury could possibly end”.

“The White House has never been clear since the war began on February 28 about just how long the war was going to take, how many different platforms it would be fought on, and what would be the final metric for the US deciding to declare victory,” she said.

But the three-week-old war has shown no signs of abating, with the US-Israeli forces attacking the Iranian capital, Tehran, and nearby areas as the country welcomed the first day of the Persian new year, Nowruz. At least two people were killed by shelling on a residential area in the village of Dastak in northern Iran’s Kiashahr, Gilan province’s governor said.

Meanwhile, Iran fired ⁠two ⁠ballistic missiles at the Diego Garcia military base in the ⁠Indian Ocean, run jointly by the US and the United Kingdom, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Saturday.

Israel said Iranian forces continued to fire missiles at it early on Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region – home to major oil installations.

US near completion of goals: Trump

The US and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war at different times, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programmes.

While Trump claimed the US is “very close” to meeting the war’s objectives, his administration is moving to bolster its firepower in the region and request another $200bn from Congress to fund the war.

Earlier this week, the US redirected another group of amphibious assault ships carrying 2,500 marines from the Pacific to the Middle East. The marines will join more than 50,000 US troops already in the region.

Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran, but has also asserted that he retains all options.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Friday said Iran has dealt “a dizzying blow” to its enemies and that the US-Israeli war on his country was a “gross miscalculation”.

In a written statement read on Iranian television to mark Nowruz, Khamenei praised the Iranians’ steadfastness in the face of war. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he became the supreme leader following the Israeli strikes that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and reportedly wounded him.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Iran during the war, according to the authorities, while Israeli bombing has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon. In Israel, at least 18 people have been killed by Iranian missiles, while at least 13 US soldiers have died so far, according to officials.