posted<\/a> on his Truth Social platform that he would extend an existing ceasefire that was initially scheduled for two weeks.<\/p>\nIts expiry was set for Wednesday. Trump had previously said that he did not want to extend it.<\/p>\n
But in his sudden about-face, Trump said the pause in the fighting would continue \u201cuntil such time as [Iran\u2019s] leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s economic penalties were imposed against companies and people based in Iran, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
They include Chabok FZCO, a Dubai-based firm that the US government accused of procuring \u201csensors other US-origin aircraft components\u201d for the Iranian airline Mahan Air.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sanctions also target Kamal Sabah Balkhkanlu, an Iranian money exchanger, and several individuals the Treasury Department said are involved \u201cin procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components\u201d on behalf of Tehran.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the United States continues to deplete Iran\u2019s ballistic missile inventories, the regime is seeking to reconstitute its production capacity,\u201d the Treasury said.<\/p>\n
The measures freeze the targets\u2019 assets in the US and make it generally illegal for US citizens to do business with them.<\/p>\n
Trump has been piling sanctions against Iran as part of what his administration calls a \u201cmaximum pressure campaign\u201d against the country.<\/p>\n
The US and Israel jointly started bombing Iran on February 28, launching a conflict that has spread across the Middle East, with ramifications the world over.<\/p>\n
Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz and launching drone and missile attacks across the region. The fighting was halted on April 8 after the two-week ceasefire was reached.<\/p>\n
Iran, however, continued to block Hormuz because Israel refused to extend the ceasefire to Lebanon, as stipulated in the ceasefire deal initially announced by Pakistan.<\/p>\n
In turn, the US military imposed its own naval blockade in the region, targeting all ships originating from or bound for Iranian ports.<\/p>\n
Iran announced the reopening of Hormuz last week after a truce was established in Lebanon. But Trump has maintained that the US blockade will continue, prompting Tehran to shut down the strait again.<\/p>\n
In recent days, as part of its ongoing blockade, the US military has seized at least one Iranian vessel, and it has ordered 28 other ships to turn around.<\/p>\n
With tensions still high, Iranian officials have cast doubt over the fate of the talks in Pakistan. Tehran still has not confirmed its participation in the talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire,\u201d Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday in a social media post.<\/p>\n
\u201cStriking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation. Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States has issued a new round of sanctions against Iran on the eve of possible talks to close more of seven weeks of fighting between the two countries. The US Department of the Treasury announced the penalties on Tuesday, targeting 14 individuals and entities it accused of helping Iran acquire weapon components. Recommended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}