Iran seizes ships as US extends truce amid rising tensions
Updated ,first published
US President Donald Trump said he had ordered the navy to “shoot and kill” any boats laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized two ships and tightened its control over the strategic waterway during an indefinite ceasefire with no sign of resuming peace talks.
“I have ordered the US Navy to shoot and kill any boat that lays mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, even small boats (ALL of the Navy ships, 159 of them at the bottom of the sea!),” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday. “Do not hesitate. Moreover, our minesweeping teams are currently clearing the Bosphorus. I order this activity to continue with a threefold increase!”
The status of the two-week ceasefire, which will end at the beginning of this week, remains unclear. In the sharp turnaround hours after threatening renewed violence, Trump made what appeared to be a one-sided announcement that the United States would extend the ceasefire until Iran discussed its proposal to end the two-month war in peace talks.
But Iranian officials did not say they agreed to an extension of the ceasefire and criticized Trump’s decision to continue the US blockade of Iranian ports, which Tehran considers an act of war.
Iranian parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammed Bagher Galibaf said a full ceasefire would only be meaningful if the blockade was lifted.
Ghalibaf said in a statement on social media that reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that carried one fifth of the world’s oil trade before the war, was impossible “with such a blatant violation of the ceasefire”.
“You did not achieve your goals through military aggression, and you will not achieve them through tyranny,” he wrote in his first response to Trump’s statement. “The only way is to recognize the rights of the Iranian people.”
Trump has once again backed down at the last minute from his repeated threats to bomb Iran’s power plants and other civilian infrastructure, which the United Nations and others have warned would violate international humanitarian law.
But little progress has been made in ending the war that began with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28. This leaves the two sides in a holding pattern, with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, straining economies around the world.
Iranian state television reported that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two ships identified as MSC Francesca and Epaminondas after three ships were attacked in the strait on Wednesday. It was reported that the two ships were taken to Iran for “examination of their cargo, documents and records”.
According to maritime security sources, the third ship, a Liberian-flagged container ship, was also fired upon in the same area, but was not damaged and set sail again.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the seizure was not a violation of the ceasefire because the ships were not U.S. or Israeli ships. He called it an act of “piracy”.
After the seizures, traffic in the Bosphorus came to a halt. Only one ship, the bulk carrier LB Energy, was seen moving through the waterway early Thursday and no other vessels were seen entering. The tanker Ocean Jewel is currently stationed at the entrance to the corridor and canceled passage shortly after Iranian forces began firing on the three ships.
The US military said on Wednesday it had so far ordered more than 30 ships to turn back or return to port as part of the blockade against Iran. Far beyond the Gulf, the US has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters and diverted them from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, the sources said.
International crude benchmark Brent remained above $100 a barrel in Asian trade on Thursday, reaching triple digits a day earlier for the first time in two weeks.
No new deadline
In his announcement Tuesday, Trump said he had accepted a request from Pakistani negotiators “to continue our Attack on the Country of Iran until its leaders and representatives put forward a unified proposal and discussions are concluded one way or another.”
Leavitt told reporters he had not set any deadlines for proposals or discussions.
Pakistan, which is acting as a mediator, was still trying to bring the parties together after they failed to attend tentatively planned talks in Islamabad on Tuesday before the end of a two-week ceasefire.
No agreement was reached in the first session of peace talks between Iran and the USA held in Islamabad 11 days ago.
Trump wants Iran to give up highly enriched uranium and forego further enrichment to prevent it from producing nuclear weapons. Iran says it has only a peaceful civilian nuclear program and wants sanctions lifted, damage compensation and recognition of its control over the strait.
Iran has also made a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon a condition of ceasefire talks. On Wednesday, Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least five people, including Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, in the deadliest day since a 10-day ceasefire declared on April 16.
Beirut will push for an extension of the ceasefire that expires on Sunday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on the eve of new talks between Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors in Washington on Thursday.
Thousands of people were killed in the Middle East, mostly in Iran and Lebanon.
Reuters
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