IRAN announced the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz today for live fire military drills as its negotiators held another round of indirect talks with the United States in Geneva over its nuclear programme.

It was the first time that Tehran has announced the closure of the key international waterway, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes, since the US began threatening Iran and rushing military assets to the region. 

Iran said its Revolutionary Guard had started a drill early on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman — all crucial international shipping routes. 

It was the second time in recent weeks that Iran has held a live fire exercise in the Strait of Hormuz.

As the talks began, Iranian state media announced that the country’s military had fired missiles toward the strait and would close it for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns.”

The Tasnim news agency, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, said missiles launched inside Iran and along its coast had struck their targets in the strait.

Iranian state television later said the talks had wrapped up after almost three hours.

State TV had reported earlier that the negotiations would be indirect and would focus only on Iran’s nuclear programme and not domestic policies, including the government’s bloody crackdown on protests last month.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear programme. Iran has warned that it would respond with an attack of its own. 

Mr Trump has also threatened reprisals over Iran’s killing of protesters.

The first round of talks were held on February 6 in Oman, on the eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula, and were indirect. 

The latest were held at the residence of the Omani envoy to Geneva, with the two sides apparently meeting separately with mediators.