\n<\/p>\n
Iran has captured two foreign commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and moved them to its coast, in a further escalation that comes hours after United States President Donald Trump said he would extend a ceasefire with Tehran.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the vessels had violated maritime regulations and entered the strategic waterway without coordination, according to Iranian state media.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The capture follows Wednesday\u2019s incident, in which an Iranian gunboat fired on a container vessel near Oman, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre.<\/p>\n The British maritime monitoring agency said the ship\u2019s captain reported that the ship had been approached by an IRGC vessel before shots were fired.<\/p>\n \u201c[It] has caused heavy damage to the bridge. No fires or environmental impact reported,\u201d UKMTO added. No casualties were reported, and all crew members were said to be safe.<\/p>\n The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply passes, remains one of the most strategically significant waterways.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said, \u201cThis is in line with what we heard from the IRGC previously, saying that any passage of ships, vessels or oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz should be with the permission and coordination of the IRGC.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the capture reflected Iran\u2019s continuing strategy to impose control and authority over maritime traffic through the chokepoint, adding that Iranian officials were now discussing charges and transit fees for vessels using the route.<\/p>\n British maritime security firm Vanguard Tech said the container vessel that came under fire was sailing under a Liberian flag and had been informed it had permission to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Iranian news agency Tasnim, however, said the vessel had ignored warnings issued by Iran\u2019s forces.<\/p>\n The incident followed a warning from the IRGC\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters after what it described as the US capture of an Iranian commercial ship in the Sea of Oman, the IRNA news agency reported.<\/p>\n It accused Washington of violating the ceasefire and carrying out \u201carmed piracy\u201d after allegedly firing on the Iranian vessel and disabling its navigation systems.<\/p>\n Trump earlier announced he would delay a planned military attack on Iran after requests from Pakistan\u2019s army chief, Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.<\/p>\n Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the decision was made because Iran\u2019s government was \u201cseriously fractured\u201d and needed time to present a unified position.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n He added, however, that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place and said the military had been ordered to stay \u201cready and able\u201d.<\/p>\n The announcement marked a shift from comments made a day earlier, when Trump said it was \u201chighly unlikely\u201d he would extend the truce beyond Tuesday.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Asadi said Iranian officials were sending mixed messages over the ceasefire and the prospects for negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cTehran is saying they won\u2019t negotiate under imposed terms and conditions \u2026 when we compare the initial 10-point and 15-point proposals by the Iranians and Americans, we can understand that the two sides are poles apart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe atmosphere is also clouded by this mistrust in Tehran towards the United States, as well as the simultaneous military rhetoric related to a potential failed negotiation \u2026 It is a warning that another round of confrontation may be ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Iran still viewed the Strait of Hormuz as a key source of leverage in any talks.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s trying to exercise authority over the ships and vessels transiting this strategically significant chokepoint,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Asadi said Iranian officials framed their regional position as based on mutual security. \u201cIranians are saying that the basis of their foreign policy behaviour, particularly when it comes to Israel, is security for all versus security for none.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Iran has captured two foreign commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and moved them to its coast, in a further escalation that comes hours after United States President Donald Trump said he would extend a ceasefire with Tehran. Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the vessels had violated maritime regulations and entered the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19959","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\/19959","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=19959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Trump extends ceasefire<\/h2>\n
\u2018Positive and negative signals\u2019 from Tehran<\/h2>\n
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