The Latest: Iran attacks 3 ships in the Strait of Hormuz as Trump indefinitely extends ceasefire
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12:48 AM on Wednesday, April 22
By The Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States was indefinitely extending its ceasefire with Iran as a new round of peace talks was on hold.
Pakistan had planned to host a second round of talks, but the White House suspended Vice President JD Vance’s planned trip to Islamabad as Iran rebuffed efforts to restart negotiations. Iran acknowledged the ceasefire extension but didn't say Tehran was ready to attend a new round of talks to end the war, state television reported Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Iran’s semiofficial news agencies are reporting that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has attacked a third ship on Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, throwing into question efforts to end the war. Nour News, Fars and Mehr all reported the attack by the Guard on a vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating. The Guard has seized the other two ships that were attacked, Iranian state television separately reported.
Here is the latest:
The group added in a statement that the two attacks targeting soldiers and vehicles in the village of Qantara on Wednesday evening were in retaliation for alleged Israeli violations of the 10-day ceasefire that took effect Friday.
The strikes marked the group’s third attack on Wednesday. Israel did not immediately comment on the latest attacks but has previously accused Hezbollah of breaching the ceasefire.
The ministry said two Israeli strikes on al-Tiri in southern Lebanon killed two people. The journalist Amal Khalil and her colleague took cover in a house, which the ministry said was targeted in the second strike. When rescuers arrived, they were able to recover the two bodies and one injured journalist. But the Israeli military fired live ammunition at the ambulance, preventing the team from completing the search for Khalil, the ministry said. Lebanon’s National News Agency showed pictures of the damage to the ambulance.
Khalil’s condition is not clear. She is a prominent journalist with the Lebanese daily Al-AKhbar.
Israel’s military alleged the individuals in the village violated the ceasefire, posing a risk to the troops’ safety. It denied that it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area or that it targets journalists.
“A complete ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by the maritime/naval blockade and taking the world’s economy hostage, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted,” Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Wednesday.
“Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible with such flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” Qalibaf added. “The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation.”
Lebanese officials and Reporters Without Borders said a journalist was missing following an Israeli strike near the southern village of al-Tiri on Wednesday, while another journalist was wounded.
The Israeli military said it struck a vehicle and a structure in the area after identifying what it described as militants posing an immediate threat near the border.
The military said it was aware of reports that journalists were injured but did not confirm them and denied preventing rescue teams from reaching the area.
The details of the incident are under review, it added.
The president said he has been informed that four of the women will be “released immediately,” while four others will be sentenced to one month each in prison.
“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request ... and terminated the planned execution,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.
He said the women protesters were expected to be executed Wednesday.
Rights groups that monitor Iran had said two of the women were already released on bail in March, and two others were known to face charges that carry the death sentences. They had been arrested during the January anti-government protests.
Trump re-posted a photo of the women, including two teen girls, on Tuesday on social media, which a conservative activist noted are facing prosecution in Iran.
The Iranian judiciary responded promptly, denying that any of them were on the verge of execution, saying some were already released.
The ministry added that the Wednesday afternoon strike on the village of Yohmor also wounded two people.
Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, on Wednesday condemned attacks on shipping after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, seizing two and taking them to Iran. Earlier, Trump said the United States would continue to blockade Iranian ports.
“The attacks on and seizures of commercial ships are unacceptable,” Dominguez said, urging an immediate halt and the release of vessels and crews. He warned that the situation remains “extremely volatile” and questioned why companies risk seafarers’ lives.
Nearly 20,000 seafarers remain at sea after seven weeks, uncertain when they can return home, he added.
An analytics firm focusing on global energy and freight markets says it recorded 34 movements of sanctioned and Iranian-linked tankers in and out of the Persian Gulf in the week after the U.S. imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
The firm, Vortexa, says it identified 19 outbound and 15 inbound movements of such vessels between April 13 and Monday.
Six of those outbound movements were “confirmed laden with Iranian crude, representing about 10.7 million barrels,” it said in an email to The Associated Press.
It was not immediately clear whether all those barrels reached markets overseas.
Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, called on the international community on Wednesday to immediately pressure the Israeli army into allowing the rescue of journalist Amal Khalil, who works for the daily Al-Akhbar.
RSF added that Khalil is currently trapped near the southern Lebanese village of al-Tiri following an Israeli airstrike close to her vehicle.
“Her life is in danger right now! Continued Israeli airstrikes are preventing rescuers from reaching her,” RSF said.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun called on the Lebanese Red Cross to work on the rescue of Khalil, along with another journalist, Zeinab Faraj, who was with her.
Aoun requested the Lebanese Red Cross to coordinate with the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers “to carry out the rescue operation in the shortest possible time.”
The management company of a container ship that was fired upon in the Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday says the Liberian-registered Epaminondas was “approached and fired upon by a manned gunboat” while transiting the strait about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Oman.
The Technomar company said all crew were “safe and accounted for” and no injuries were reported, but that preliminary inspections indicated the ship’s bridge had been damaged.
“Technomar remains in close contact with the crew and relevant authorities. Our priority remains the safety and well-being of our crew as we work with all relevant stakeholders to ensure their continued safety and investigate the incident,” the company said. It did not provide further details, but said more information would be released “when there are material developments.”
Sadri Haghshenas spends her days selling borek — a layered, savory pastry — at a shop in Istanbul, but her mind is on her daughter in Tehran.
The family had to send her home to Iran after they ran into difficulties renewing her visa, despite fears that a shaky ceasefire could soon collapse.
For years, short-term residency permits have allowed tens of thousands of Iranians to pursue economic opportunities and enjoy relative stability in neighboring Turkey. But it’s a precarious situation, and the war has raised the stakes.
“I swear, I cry every day,” Haghshenas said, raising her hands from behind the counter of the pastry shop. “There is no life in my country, there is no life here, what shall I do?”
Turkey hasn't seen an influx of refugees, as most Iranians have sought safety within their country. Many who've crossed the land border were transiting to other countries where they have citizenship or residency.
The strike targeted a vehicle in the town of Tayri on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
No further details on the identities of the victims were immediately available.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.
The strike comes despite a 10-day ceasefire that went into effect Friday. Since then, several Israeli strikes have been reported, while Hezbollah has claimed a couple of attacks since Tuesday.
On Saturday, a U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon came under attack with small arms fire leaving one French peacekeeper dead and three others wounded, two of them seriously.
French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X that a wounded soldier, who was repatriated Tuesday from Lebanon “where he had been seriously wounded by Hezbollah fighters, died this morning from his injuries.”
Hezbollah had denied is was behind the attack.
“We entered the negotiations in good faith and with seriousness, but the negotiating party (the United States) has shown disregard and lack of good faith,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, said Wednesday, according to Iran’s State TV.
A second round of negotiations, expected in Pakistan’s capital later this week, has not yet been confirmed. On Tuesday, President Trump extended a ceasefire with Iran indefinitely, leaving the next steps for resuming talks unclear.
“Iran has not yet decided whether it will participate in the new round of peace negotiations with the United States scheduled for later this week,” Baqaei said.
GE Vernova, Boston Scientific and Boeing are leading the U.S. stock market toward another record after joining the list of companies reporting fatter profits for the start of the year than analysts expected.
But caution is still hanging over Wall Street on Wednesday, and oil prices are also rising on uncertainty about what will happen in the war with Iran.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% and was on track to top its all-time high set Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 360 points and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil briefly topped $100.
Talking about the repercussions of the Iran war, the head of the International Energy Agency said Wednesday that “we are facing the biggest energy crisis in the history.”
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin that what ”we lost in the this war is much bigger than all the crises put together in terms of oil and gas. Plus, plus, there are vital commodities that we are losing — petrochemicals, fertilizers, helium, sulfur.”
However, Birol also pointed out that “there will be a major response to this crisis as well” and that “it is now the job of the governments to design their energy policies in terms of industrial sector, while keeping the competitiveness of the existing industries, preparing the next steps for the tomorrow’s industries.”
He said he also expects that “there will be a similar response in all parts of the economy, car manufacturing industry, electric industry and in the industry sector.”
“And this is a wonderful opportunity,” he added.
The Israeli military said it intercepted around 40 Israeli civilians that attempted to enter Syria on Wednesday afternoon. The military said the civilians gathered at the border and then were able to infiltrate several hundred meters into the Israeli-military controlled buffer zone in Syria before being returned to Israel and taken into police custody.
The Israeli media identified the infiltrators as part of the right-wing group “Pioneers of Bashan,” which calls for establishing Jewish settlements in Lebanon and Syria.
The group added in a statement that its attack on the post in the southern village of Bayada on Wednesday came in retaliation for Israeli violations of the 10-day ceasefire that went into effect Friday.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah is violating the ceasefire adding that the Iran-backed group launched “a hostile aircraft” toward Israeli soldiers operating in the area of southern Lebanon.
The military said the aircraft was intercepted by Israel’s air force and did not cross into Israel.
It might be hard to imagine the Iran war weighing on stuffed toys with names like Snuggle Glove, Bizzikins and Wobblies, but even plush playthings aren’t immune when oil shipments from the Middle East are constrained.
Like many soft toys, the creatures developed by a manufacturer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are made with polyester and acrylic, synthetic fibers derived from petroleum. Three weeks after the war started, suppliers in China notified Aleni Brands that getting the materials already was costing them 10% to 15% more, CEO Ricardo Venegas said.
“I think this situation demonstrates how much oil permeates throughout our system, and we can’t get away from it,” said Venegas, who founded Aleni Brands last year and is in the process of adding product lines. “Who would have thought that the price of a toy would have a direct relationship with oil?”
It’s not just toys. Petrochemicals derived from oil and natural gas go into making more than 6,000 consumer products, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
President Joseph Aoun’s comments on Wednesday came a day before a second meeting is scheduled to take place in Washington between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors.
Aoun said in comments released by his office that preparations are ongoing for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.
He said the aim of the future talks is to “fully” stop Israeli attacks, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel, deployment of Lebanese troops along the border and beginning the reconstruction process.
Aoun said the support to Lebanon that was promised by U.S. President Donald Trump and other countries “provided us with an opportunity that we must not miss, as it may not come again.”
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war was halted by a 10-day ceasefire that went into effect Friday.
A semiofficial news agency close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard again raised the idea Wednesday that Gulf Arab states remained vulnerable to having their undersea data cables being cut in the Strait of Hormuz.
The report by the Tasnim news agency suggested that “simultaneous damage to several major cables — whether through accidents or deliberate action — could trigger severe outages across the Persian Gulf.”
Multiple cables run through the strait. Already, the region has faced outages after undersea cables were cut multiple times in the Red Sea. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels had threatened cables in the past.
With uncertainty over whether the ceasefire lasts, residents of Tehran say they are anxious about what comes next.
“Last night my family all stayed awake, waiting for the clock to show 3:30 a.m. and see who really has the upper hand,” said Reza Tehrani, a 34-year-old resident of Tehran.
Tehrani said Trump is making a series of false claims, including that Iran will give up its enriched uranium. “It’s obvious that he will eventually take his warships back and nothing will happen. We will win, rest assured,” he said.
One resident voiced frustration with the uncertainty.
“We should know where we stand. Is it going to be a ceasefire, peace or the war is going to continue?” said Tehran resident Mashallah Mohammad Sadegh, 59. “The way things currently are, one doesn’t know what to do.”
The European Union’s top energy official is warning that the massive energy crisis sparked by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is set to hit prices for months, even years, to come.
EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said Wednesday that “this is not a short-term, small increase in prices. This is a crisis that is probably as serious as the 1973 and the 2022 crises combined.”
Jørgensen says the war is costing Europe around 500 million euros ($600 million) each day and that “we are looking into some very difficult months, or maybe even years” ahead. “Even in a best-case scenario, it’s still bad,” he told reporters.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei acknowledged the ceasefire extension in comments reported Wednesday by Iranian state television.
Baghaei did not specifically say Tehran was ready to attend a new round of talks with the United States in Islamabad.
“Diplomacy is a tool for securing national interests and security, and whenever we reach the conclusion that the necessary and reasonable conditions exist to use this tool to achieve national interests and to consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies’ malicious objectives, we will take action,” he reportedly said.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said an emergency doctor, Golnar Naraqi, and an Iranian citizen of the Bahai faith, Venus Hossein Nejad, have been out on bail since late March.
The two women were arrested separately during the January anti-government protests. The protests across Iran were met with a bloody crackdown that left thousands killed and arrested.
In a social media post Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump reposted a photo of six women and two teen girls that a conservative activist said are facing prosecution by the Iranian government.
Iran’s judiciary swiftly responded, saying some of the women have already been released without naming them. It said none of them face the death sentence. Internet restrictions have limited the flow of information out of Iran.
Rights groups say at least two of the other women still in detention are facing charges that carry the death sentence. There have been multiple executions during the war against alleged spies and protesters, mostly accused of links to Israel.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has attacked a third ship Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported.
Nour News, Fars and Mehr all reported the attack by the Guard on a vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating.
The Guard has seized the other two ships that were attacked, Iranian state television separately reported.
Two ships earlier attacked Wednesday by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard now are in the force’s custody and are being taken to Iran, Iranian state television reported.
It identified the vessels as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas. The ship’s owners could not be immediately reached for comment.
The seizures represent an Iranian escalation after the U.S. earlier seized two Iranian vessels as ceasefire talks were due to take place in Islamabad.
The Guard said in a statement the ships “allegedly operated without authorization, repeatedly violated regulations, manipulated navigational aid systems and sought to covertly exit the Strait of Hormuz, endangering maritime security.”
The strait had been considered an international waterway open to all before the war, even though it sits in Iranian and Omani territorial waters.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Lebanon to work with Israel to disarm the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah ahead of negotiations in Washington on Thursday.
The meeting follows a similar gathering last week in Washington, and is the first time in decades the two countries are speaking directly.
“We don’t have any serious disagreements with Lebanon. There are a few minor border disputes that can be solved,” Saar said during Independence Day remarks to Israel’s diplomatic corps.
“The obstacle to peace and normalization between the countries is one: Hezbollah,” he said, adding that Lebanon could have “a future of sovereignty, independence and freedom from the Iranian occupation.”
Israel’s military has currently established a buffer zone stretching around 10 kilometers (6 miles) into southern Lebanon to remove the threat of short-range rockets and anti-tank missiles toward northern Israel.
