WASHINGTON/DUBAI/ISLAMABAD – Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz on April 22, tightening its grip on the strategic waterway after US President Donald Trump called off attacks with no sign of peace talks restarting.
Mr Trump maintained the US Navy blockade of Iran’s trade by sea, and Iran’s Parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said a full ceasefire only made sense if it was lifted. Reopening the strait was impossible with such a “flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” Mr Qalibaf said in a post on X.
“You did not achieve your goals through military aggression and you will not achieve them by bullying either. The only way is recognising the Iranian people’s rights,” he said in his first response to Mr Trump’s ceasefire extension.
Mr Trump has backed away from recent threats to bomb critical Iranian infrastructure, but little progress has been made in resolving issues key to ending the war that started with joint US-Israeli strikes on Feb 28.
That leaves the two sides in a holding pattern with the crucial Strait of Hormuz still effectively shut, stranding about one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies, straining economies across the world.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency earlier said the Revolutionary Guards had seized two vessels for maritime violations and escorted them to Iranian shores. It was the first time Iran has seized ships since the war began at the end of February.
The Revolutionary Guards also warned that any disruption to order and safety in the strait would be considered a “red line”, Tasnim said.
Brent, the international crude oil benchmark, closed above US$100 a barrel for the first time in two weeks. The ongoing blockade of the strait is driving up costs for businesses while major economies run down reserves and restrict consumption with millions of oil barrels cut off from key markets.
Mr Trump said on social media late on April 21 that the US had agreed to a request by Pakistani mediators “to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal… and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.”
Mr Trump has not set a new end date for the extended ceasefire, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Ms Leavitt said Mr Trump wants to see a “unified” response from Iran’s leadership to his proposals to end hostilities. US officials believe Iran’s actions suggest it is internally divided on how to respond.
Pakistan, which has acted as a mediator, was still trying to bring the sides together after both failed to show up for talks on April 21 before the two-week-old ceasefire had been due to expire.
“We were all prepared for the talks,” a Pakistani official briefed on the preparations told Reuters. “If you ask me honestly, it was a setback we were not expecting, because the Iranians never refused, they were up to come and join, and they still are.”
In a show of defiance, Iran showcased some of its ballistic weapons at a parade in Tehran on the evening of April 21, with images on state TV showing large crowds waving Iranian flags and a banner in the background with a fist choking off the strait.
Captions read: “Indefinitely under Iran’s Control” and “Trump could not do a damn thing”, referring to the strait, which Iran has effectively shut to ships other than its own by attacking vessels that attempt to transit without its permission.
The Revolutionary Guards accused the seized ships, the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas and Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, of operating without required permits and tampering with their navigation systems.
Greece’s Technomar Shipping, which operates Epaminondas, confirmed the ship was captured. Epaminondas reported being fired upon about 20 nautical miles north-west of Oman, sustaining damage to its bridge, though no one was hurt in the incident.
MSC, the world’s biggest container shipping group, did not respond to a Reuters request for immediate comment.
A third, Liberia-flagged container ship was fired upon in the same area but was not damaged and had resumed sailing, according to maritime security sources.
Ms Leavitt told Fox News’ The Story With Martha MacCallum that since the ships were not US or Israeli vessels the seizure was not a violation of the ceasefire. She called it an act of “piracy” and said the use of small gunboats showed that Iran’s navy had been destroyed and that Iran does not have control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Normally, around 130 vessels transit the strait on a daily basis. That figure has dwindled sharply since the outset of the war.
The US military said on the afternoon of April 22 that it had so far directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the US blockade against Iran.
With his announcement on April 21, Mr Trump again pulled back at the last moment from warnings to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges, a threat condemned by the United Nations and others as potentially constituting war crimes. Iran had said it would strike its Arab neighbours if its civilian infrastructure was hit.
A first session of peace talks 11 days ago produced no agreement.
Washington wants Iran to give up highly enriched uranium and forgo further enrichment to prevent it getting a weapon. Iran, which says its nuclear programme is peaceful, wants an end to the war, the lifting of sanctions, reparations for damage and recognition of its control over the strait.
An Israeli strike killed two people in southern Lebanon on April 22, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, and Hezbollah said it launched an attack drone at Israeli forces in the south, further straining a ceasefire between the Iran-backed group and Israel.
The Lebanon ceasefire had been a precondition for Iran agreeing to talks. REUTERS
