Essjay Bennett’s new clothing collection is inspired by Tāne Mahuta.

President Donald Trump says the US Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea route for oil shipments whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy.

Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the United States and Iran in the weekslong war, experts say.

Any future claims that the US cleared the waterway where 20 per cent of the world's oil typically passes might fail to convince commercial freighters and their insurers that it is finally safe.

READ MORE: 'Too much work': Trump calls off sending envoys to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran

“You don’t even have to have laid mines — you just have to make people believe that you’ve laid mines," Foreign Policy Research Institute’s National Security Program scholar Emma Salisbury said.

“And even if the US sweeps the strait and says everything’s clear, all the Iranians have to do is say, ‘Well, actually, you haven’t found them all yet,’” said Salisbury, who is also a fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre.

“There's only so much the US can do to give that confidence back to commercial shipping.”

Seeking out mines is one of the latest tactics announced by the Trump administration to get traffic moving again through the strait as rising energy prices and wider economic effects pose a political risk.

The US also has blockaded Iran's ports and seized ships tied to Tehran, but the president said Saturday he had instructed his envoys not to travel to Pakistan for the latest ceasefire talks after Iran's top diplomat left Islamabad.

Hegseth doesn't deny that mine-clearing could take six months

Pentagon officials told lawmakers it would likely take six months to clear the mines that Iran has set in the strait, according a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.

The information was delivered during a classified briefing at the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

When asked about the estimate, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Friday that the military would not speculate on a timeline, but he did not deny it.

“Allegedly that was something that was said,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon news conference. “But we feel confident in our ability, in the correct period of time, to clear any mines that we identify.”

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Trump said he has ordered the Navy to attack any boat laying mines in the strait.

“Additionally, our mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now,” the president said on social media Thursday. “I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!”

Adm. Brad Cooper, the top US commander in the Middle East, recently told reporters that the military would be working to clear mines from the strait. He did not offer details.

There is no indication that the US military is using warships, its most visible mine-clearing assets, in the strait now.

But the Navy also has divers and small teams of explosive ordnance disposal technicians in the region that are capable of clearing mines. They are a less obvious target than a large warship.

Experts also say some mine-clearing equipment could be moved off ships and deployed from land.

It's easier for Iran to lay mines than it is to find them, expert says

It is unclear whether a single mine has been deployed. Iran has mentioned only the “likelihood” of mines in the strait’s pre-war routes.

Estimates of Iran’s mine stockpiles are in the low thousands, said Salisbury, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Most of its underwater explosives are believed to be older Soviet models. Some of its newer ones may be from China or made domestically.

“Minelaying is a lot easier than minesweeping, so you can literally push these things off the back of a speedboat,” Salisbury said, though she noted the US could likely see that.

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Iran also has small submarines that can lay mines and are much harder to detect, Salisbury added. She said she has not seen indications that they have been destroyed in the war.

If Iran has set mines in the strait, they are not the spiky balls floating on the surface seen in the movies, Salisbury said.

The explosives are likely sitting on the seabed or moored to it by a cable and floating under the surface. They can be triggered by the water pressure changing when a ship passes or by the sound of its engine.

How the US can sweep for mines in the strait

The US Navy now has two littoral combat ships in the Middle East that are capable of sweeping for mines, said a defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military movements.

Two US Avenger-class minesweepers based in Japan also have departed for the Middle East but were in the Pacific Ocean as of Friday, the official said.

Steven Wills, a retired lieutenant commander who served on an Avenger-class ship, said the Navy is likely looking for sea explosives in order to create a safe channel through the strait.

Minesweeping is a slower process that usually occurs after a conflict.

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“Minehunting is walking through your yard pulling individual weeds and dandelions so that you can walk safely from one side to the other. Minesweeping is more like mowing the grass,” said Wills, an expert at the Center for Maritime Strategy at the Navy League of the United States.

Scott Savitz, a researcher with the RAND Corp. who focuses on naval operations and mine clearing, said the Navy does not necessarily have to remove every last mine.

“There’s still areas that have not been cleared from World War II — and in some cases, World War I — just because it is so resource intensive and it takes a lot of time," he said.

Teams on the Navy's littoral combat ships can deploy remotely operated, uncrewed vehicles that use sonar and other technology to find mines, Wills said. They also carry charges to destroy the explosives.

US Navy ships may also have explosive ordnance disposal teams, including divers, that can hunt for and destroy mines, Wills said. Helicopters can search for mines using lasers.

Shipping companies are weighing the risks

Eventually, shipping companies will be willing to take some risks to travel through the strait “particularly given how lucrative it is,” Savitz said.

Under Iran's approval procedure for vessels wanting to transit the strait, ships must take a different route than before the war — to the north, near Iran's coastline.

Insurers are adding a clause that requires ship owners to contact Iranian authorities to ensure safe passage, said Dylan Mortimer, U.K. marine war leader for insurance broker Marsh.

That certification does not mention mines specifically and is intended to protect against the entire spectrum of threats, including missile and drone attacks or seizures, Mortimer said.

But mines do, at the very least, play a psychological role, a phenomenon Mortimer called the “spectre of threat.”

“That plays in the Iranians' favour, because whether there are mines there or not, people think there’s mines there and they will operate accordingly,” Mortimer said.

Those fears could mean it takes longer to restore confidence that the strait is safe even after the war.

How $6.99 surprise bags are helping Kiwis stretch budgets.

Patrons have been caught in the crossfire after a busy bar in Melbourne was targeted in a drive-by shooting overnight.

The Emerson in South Yarra was open when a car pulled up to the Commercial Road venue and a gunman fired several shots into the building just before 2am.

Nobody was injured.

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It's unknown how many people were in the car at the time, but it fled the scene.

The gunman remains on the run.

A heavy police presence remains at the scene this morning where part of Commercial Road remains blocked off.

The nightclub was targeted by arsonists less than two weeks ago.

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President Donald Trump says he called off dispatching top US envoys to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran, telling Fox News that ″they can call us anytime they want”.

The president said in a social media post, “I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad.”

That came shortly after Trump told Fox News that he’d instructed US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner not to go.

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In a brief phone interview, Trump told Fox News that he told US negotiators Witkoff and Kushner, “You’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”

He wrote in the subsequent post, “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!”

Trump's comments on Saturday came after the White House said Friday that Witkoff and Kushner would be heading to Pakistan for another round of negotiations with Iran.

The president also repeated his past suggestions that the leadership of Iran remains unsettled, writing, “Nobody knows who is in charge.”

Trump’s post followed two Pakistani officials saying Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has left Pakistan without meeting US officials.

Senior Pakistani officials were at an airport near Islamabad to see him off. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Araghchi had met with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and other senior officials about matters including Iran’s red lines in negotiations.

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Sharif spoke by phone on Saturday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, holding what he described as a “warm and constructive discussion” on the evolving regional situation.

In a post on X, Sharif said he appreciated Iran’s continued engagement, including the dispatch of a high-level delegation to Islamabad led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

He added that, with the support of friends and partners, Pakistan remains committed to serving as an “honest and sincere facilitator” to advance durable peace and lasting stability in the region.

Pakistani authorities on Saturday evening began easing restrictions following the departure of the Iranian delegation and the US decision not to send its delegation to Islamabad for potential talks, offering relief to hundreds of thousands of residents after nearly a week of near-lockdown conditions.

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Pakistan’s prime minister meets with Iran’s foreign minister

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday at the prime minister’s office in the capital, Islamabad.

Sharif’s office issued a statement saying the meeting was ongoing.

It said Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir were also present.

No further details were immediately available, and the statement only said the “current regional situation will be discussed.”

Trump says Iran presented new offers 10 minutes after he cancelled US team’s trip

Amid the stalled negotiations with Iran, the president said the Iranians sent over a new peace proposal, but that it “could have been better,” and rejected it.

“They gave us a paper that could have been better, and interestingly, immediately when I cancelled it, within 10 minutes we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump said to reporters on Saturday before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from Florida.

The President wouldn’t offer specifics about what was in the latest proposal other than saying “they offered a lot.” But he stressed that one of his conditions is that Iran “will not have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump said he cancelled the latest rounds of negotiations with Iran because it was “a lot of traveling” and because his negotiators, Witkoff and Kushner, "weren’t meeting with the leader of the country".

Trump said the US will “deal by telephone and they can call us anytime they want” before adding that “we have all the cards”.

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Iran’s top diplomat meets with Pakistan army chief

Iran’s top diplomat and Pakistan’s army chief have discussed efforts to launch a new round of talks with the US.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Telegram that he met with Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir Saturday morning in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, and explained Iran’s views on ending the war between the Islamic Republic and the US.

Araghchi didn’t offer further details, but said Tehran will continue engaging in the Pakistani-led mediation efforts “until a result is achieved.”

Iran says continued US naval blockade will trigger ‘powerful response’

Iran’s joint military command warned in a statement Saturday that if the US continues its “naval blockades, banditry, and piracy in the region,” it will provoke a decisive military response from Iran.

The statement, carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, added that if the US and Israel renewed their aggression, they would face more losses.

It remains unclear whether Iran and the US will resume negotiations soon.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi left Pakistan, the key mediator in the negotiations between the two countries, a few hours ago, with no immediate word on possible resumption of talks.

Shortly after, Trump said in a social media post that he called off sending US envoys to Pakistan for negotiations.