World weighs fate of Mideast ceasefire, US seizes ship

Concerns that the ceasefire between the US and Iran may not hold are growing after the US announced that it had seized an Iranian cargo ship trying to enforce the blockade and Iran vowed to retaliate.

Efforts to build a more lasting peace in the region appear to be on equally shaky ground, with Iran saying it will not participate in a second round of talks that the United States hopes to launch before the ceasefire ends on Tuesday.

While the United States maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, Iran lifted and then reimposed its own blockade of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically supplies about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

The US military said that an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, which was heading to Iran’s Bandar Abbas port on Sunday after a six-hour delay, was fired upon and its engines were disabled.

US sailors later descended from helicopters onto the ship, US Central Command said.

“We have full surveillance of their ship and we see what’s on it!” President Trump wrote on social media.

The Iranian military said the ship came from China.

“We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military,” a military spokesman said, according to state media.

Oil prices rose more than five percent and stock markets lurched as traders worried that the ceasefire would break down and traffic into and out of the Gulf would remain minimal.

Iranian state media reported that Tehran rejected new peace talks, citing the ongoing blockade, threatening rhetoric and Washington’s changing positions and “excessive demands.”

“You cannot restrict Iran’s oil exports while expecting free security for others,” Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref wrote on social media.

“The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all or risk of serious costs for all.”

Trump had previously warned Iran that the US would destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if it rejected Tehran’s terms.

Iran has vowed to strike the power plants and desalination plants of its Arab neighbors in the Gulf if the United States attacks civilian infrastructure.

Trump said his envoys would arrive in Islamabad on Monday evening, a day before the two-week ceasefire ends.

The US delegation will be led by Vice President J.D. Vance, who led the first peace talks of the war a week ago, and will include Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, a White House official told Reuters.

But Trump told ABC News and MS Now that Vance would not be leaving.

Pakistan, which acts as the main mediator, appears to be preparing for the talks.

Two giant US C-17 planes carrying security equipment and vehicles landed at an air base on Sunday in preparation for the arrival of the US delegation, Pakistani security sources said.

Municipal authorities in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad stopped public transport and heavy goods traffic in the city. ​

Barbed wire was erected near the Serena Hotel, where the talks were held last week, and guests were told to leave the hotel.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqir Qalibaf, who is leading the Iranian side in the negotiations, had previously said that the two sides were making progress, but they were still far from each other on nuclear issues and the strait.

European allies, who have been repeatedly criticized by Trump for not helping the war effort, worry that Washington’s negotiating team is pushing for a quick, superficial deal that would require months or years of complex negotiations.

The war, now in its eighth week, has created the most severe shock to global energy supplies in history as oil prices soared.

Thousands of people have been killed in the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the parallel Israeli invasion of Lebanon since the war began on February 28.

Iran responded to attacks against Israel and nearby Arab countries hosting US bases with missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Islamic Republic executed two men convicted of collaborating with Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and planning attacks inside the country, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan reported Sunday.

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