Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, tightening its grip on the strategic waterway, after President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire until the Middle Eastern country comes up with a “unified proposal.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two vessels for alleged maritime violations and escorted them to Iran’s shores, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The ships were the first seized since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began Feb. 28.
The seizures came after Trump extended a two-week ceasefire, to give Iran’s leaders more time to respond to U.S. peace proposals. But the U.S. Navy continues to blockade ships visiting Iranian ports and Tehran continues to threaten ships attempting to travel through the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas flows.
Iran officials have called the continued U.S. blockade a violation of the ceasefire and said the government has yet to decide whether to participate in another round of peace talks. Trump has threatened to “blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!” if the two countries can’t reach a settlement.
As the diplomatic standoff drags on, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains significantly below average. The critical shipping lane off the Iranian coast has become a focal point of the war. Iran closed the channel after being attacked, driving up global fuel prices. Average prices for a gallon of gas were just over $4 Wednesday morning, according to AAA.
Michael Loria
The White House signaled President Donald Trump’s growing displeasure with European allies Wednesday, saying the president tested them “and they failed.”
“We hear a lot of talk from the Europeans, unfortunately we don’t see enough action as far as President Trump is concerned,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview.
“In his view, he tested NATO and they failed,” she added. “They failed to come to the defense and to join forces with the United States as the president engaged in this very bold and courageous operation to take out the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world, the Iranian regime.”
U.S. NATO allies have said they were not consulted about launching the war on Iran, and many have disavowed the effort. The United Kingdom, France and other countries are taking steps to independently reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Dozens of military leaders convened in London yesterday to come up with a plan to reopen the critical waterway as it remains closed because of the war.
Zac Anderson
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say how long President Donald Trump is willing to wait for Iranian negotiators to respond as peace talks stall.
“The president has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal,” Leavitt told reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, adding: “Ultimately, the timeline will be dictated by the commander in chief.”
After warning that he would attack Iran’s infrastructure if a peace deal wasn’t reached, Trump decided against additional military action and extended a two-week ceasefire to give Tehran more time to submit a proposal to U.S. negotiators. Leavitt said Trump was “generously offering a bit of flexibility,” but wouldn’t say how long America would wait to hear from Iran.
Asked whether the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and ceasefire could go on indefinitely, Leavitt said “I’m not going to set a timetable for the president.”
Michael Loria
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the Trump administration’s demand Wednesday that Iran turn over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium if it wants to end the war.
Leavitt’s comments came during a Fox News interview as negotiations between the U.S. and Iran show few signs of progress. In announcing Tuesday he would extend the ceasefire, President Donald Trump said the United States is waiting on a peace proposal from Iran.
The top White House official’s comments signal Trump intends to hold the line with regards to Iran’s nuclear material. The president has said the highly enriched uranium lies buried underground due to U.S. airstrikes over the summer and would take significant work to retrieve.
Christopher Cann
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad B. Ghalibaf on Wednesday said reopening the Strait of Hormuz is “impossible,” calling the U.S. blockade a “flagrant breach of the ceasefire.”
“A complete ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world’s economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted; reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible with such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
He added: “They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation.”
The U.S. imposed a blockade on all Iranian ports on April 13 in response to Iran’s tightening grip on the Strait of Hormuz. In recent days, the maritime standoff has escalated as both the U.S. and Iran have seized ships in the Persian Gulf region.
Christopher Cann
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, on Wednesday said he spoke with President Donald Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and expressed his support for the ongoing U.S. blockade.
“I think the President’s decision to leave the blockade in place is very smart. It is having a strong effect on the ability of Iran to continue to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism – which they appear intent on doing,” Graham said on X. “I not only expect this blockade to stay in place until Iran shows a commitment to change their ways, I expect the blockade will be growing and that it could become global soon.”
Graham didn’t immediately name other countries where the blockade could spread in his post, but he warned that, “to those assisting or thinking about assisting the Iranian regime in distributing its oil, which provides resources for terrorism, you do so at your own peril.”
Bart Jansen
Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel who is now a senior adviser at the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, said smaller Iranian boats might have helped seize two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz even though most of the country’s navy has been sunk.
Cancian said he suspected the seizure was carried out by Iranian speed boats armed with rocket-propelled grenades or heavy machine guns.
“Some of those speedboats remain afloat, though the bulk of the Iranian Navy has been destroyed,” Cancian told USA TODAY. “From the reports, the attack came in the Strait itself, where the US does not have any ships.”
He added that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “may have threatened the ship with warning shots or actually boarded it to get it to steam to the designated Iranian port.”
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British service which monitors shipping, said the master of one of the container ships said the vessel was approached by an IRGC gun boat that “fired upon the vessel which has caused heavy damage to the bridge.” All crew were reported safe.
Christopher Cann
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Wednesday said his country has not decided whether to join another round of negotiations with the U.S., after President Donald Trump extended the ceasefire between the two countries indefinitely.
Baghaei blamed the Trump administration, saying “Washington keeps changing its stance hour by hour and lacks consistency and a unified approach in its decisions,” according to Iranian state television.
Iranian and U.S. officials were expected to begin a second round of peace talks on Wednesday, but the trip was delayed as Iran had not agreed to participate. Trump then announced that he was extending the ceasefire until Iran’s leaders can “come up with a unified proposal.”
Christopher Cann
Lebanese and Israeli diplomats will meet in Washington on Thursday as the clock winds down on a fragile ceasefire agreement between the two countries.
The meeting will be the second between envoys of the two nations this month. The first meeting, which were the highest-level direct talks between the countries in three decades, led to a 10-day ceasefire that has been tested as Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel continue to trade strikes.
While officials from both countries have expressed an interest in seeking a lasting peace agreement, there are several sticking points. Lebanese officials have called for Israel to remove its ground troops from southern Lebanon. Israel, meanwhile, has vowed to continue occupying a significant portion of southern Lebanon until it eliminates the threat posed by Hezbollah, which is not directly involved in the talks and is more powerful militarily than the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend Thursday’s meeting, with Lebanon represented by its ambassador to Washington, Nada Moawad, and Israel represented by its ambassador, Yechiel Leiter.
Contributing: Reuters
Bart Jansen
Trump continues to insist Iran is “collapsing financially” and losing a half-billion dollars per day from their inability to sell oil because of the U.S. blockade of their ports.
“Iran is collapsing financially!” Trump said on social media late April 21. “They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid.”
Bart Jansen
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, the only Iranian-American in Congress, said “hateful rhetoric” hurled at her since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in February has escalated to violent threats since she proposed to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for the “unauthorized” war.
The Arizona Democrat said the attacks have “tried to smear her family and staff” with “flat-out lies,” including that she and her parents aren’t U.S. citizens. Ansari said her family personally experienced the Iran regime’s brutality, which is part of why they emigrated.
“I fully condemn the hateful rhetoric, lies, cruel and deliberate misinformation, and threats that my family, my staff, and I have been subjected to since the Iran War began nearly 8 weeks ago,” she said on social media April 21.
Andrea Riquier
Brent crude oil, the international standard, was trading just above $99 a barrel Wednesday morning, up about 0.6% compared to Tuesday.
Gas prices, which lag behind the changes in oil, popped back above the psychologically important $4 threshold, with GasBuddy’s national average at $4.009 a gallon. That’s about 85 cents higher than last year’s average.
“Although markets remain relatively optimistic that an agreement to end the war is still in the cards, the calling off of last night’s expected negotiations has the potential to keep oil prices under upward pressure,” said John Canavan, lead analyst for Oxford Economics, in a morning note to clients.
Bart Jansen
Oil prices rose April 22 after reports of gunfire on three container ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the lack of peace talks during the ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
Brent crude futures were up 73 cents to nearly $100 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 59 cents to $90.26. Both benchmarks had climbed about 3% on April 21.
At least three container ships were hit by gunfire in the strait April 22. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy, which has blockaded shipping traffic, seized two ships for what it described as maritime violations, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Iran’s naval command posted on social media that the two seized ships − the Epaminodes and MSC-Francesca − had “endangered maritime security by operating without the necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems.”
Zac Anderson
The U.S. delegation negotiating to end the Iran war is not traveling to Pakistan, after Trump announced a ceasefire extension to give Tehran more time to submit a peace deal proposal, according to a White House official.
Vice President JD Vance was expected to make the trip to Islamabad to lead peace talks for the United States. But it was called off as the negotiations appeared to hit a roadblock.
Trump said in a social media post that Iran’s government is “seriously fractured” and that he would extend a two-week ceasefire “until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.” An Iranian official said the regime was still deciding whether to participate in another round of in-person discussions.
Michael Loria
Military officials from some 30 countries will meet in London on Wednesday to discuss plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, officials from the United Kingdom said.
The upcoming meeting builds on an earlier virtual convention hosted by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. Leaders at the April 17 meeting discussed a “military effort” to restore traffic through the strait “as soon as conditions allow,” according to Starmer’s office.
British officials said military planners in London will discuss “military capabilities, command and control, and how military forces can deploy to the region” in an effort to reopen the critical waterway.