Washington/london/dubai, April 17 -- The United States will blockade Iranian ports for "as long as it takes", US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday, threatening renewed strikes if Tehran does not make a deal."If Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy," Hegseth told a news conference at the Pentagon. US forces began blockading Iranian ports on Monday after peace talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement the previous day. General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, said the blockade "applies to all ships, regardless of nationality, heading into or from Iranian ports". "If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force," Caine said alongside Hegseth. Two sanctioned cargo vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, apparently bound for Iranian ports despite Washington's blockade in the Middle East war, tracking data indicated on Thursday. Late Wednesday, the sanctioned container ship Zaynar 2 made its way westward through the strait into the Gulf, according to the tracking platform Marine Traffic. The website specified its destination as Larak Island, close to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and it last transponded close to that location late Wednesday. The sanctioned cargo vessel Neshat followed a similar route, hugging the Iran coastline as it crossed the strait early Thursday, with Marine Traffic citing its destination as Bandar Abbas.Its latest signal at around 1500 GMT showed it anchored 16 kilometres from the port."There's evidence that ships are perhaps breaking through" the US blockade, Tom Sharpe, a former commander with the UK's Royal Navy, told a briefing for the maritime analyst group Windward on Thursday. Trackers indicated that two giant oil tankers, both under US sanctions, had successfully passed westward through the strait and broken the blockade. The very large crude carriers (VLCC), the RHN and the Alicia, crossed the strait through Iran's approved route and were still sailing westwards within the Gulf on Thursday, stating their destinations as "For Order", according to Marine Traffic. Other vessels apparently heading to Iraq include a third VLCC, the Agios Fanouris I, and a liquid petroleum gas tanker, the G Summer, the data showed. Iran could let ships sail freely through the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz without risk of attack under proposals it has offered in talks with the US, a source briefed by Tehran said. The source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Iran could be willing to let ships use the other side of the narrow strait in Omani waters ....