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Published On 23 Apr 2026<\/span>23 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Senior Iranian officials have blamed Washington for stalled peace talks, citing the United States naval blockade of the country\u2019s ports as a key obstacle, as tensions escalate at sea, with Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps capturing two foreign vessels and opening fire on a third.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran seeks \u201cdialogue and agreement\u201d, but that \u201cbreach of commitments, blockade and threats\u201d are hindering negotiations, while the White House said US President Donald Trump has set no deadline for the ceasefire extension, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stressing the timing will be the president\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Here is what we know:<\/p>\n
In Iran<\/h2>\n\n- Reopening Hormuz \u2018not possible\u2019: <\/strong>Iran\u2019s parliament speaker said his country would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the US naval blockade remained in place, calling the latter a \u201cblatant violation\u201d of the two countries\u2019 ceasefire.<\/li>\n
- Naval incidents escalate:<\/strong> Iran\u2019s IRGC reported that they captured two foreign vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and opened fire on a third ship for violating their restrictions on ships passing through the waterway.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
War diplomacy<\/h2>\n\n- No deadline for Iran peace plan:<\/strong> Trump has not set a deadline by which Iran must submit a peace proposal, the White House said on Wednesday. \u201cThe president has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal, unlike some of the reporting I\u2019ve seen today. Ultimately, the timeline will be dictated by the commander-in-chief,\u201d Leavitt told journalists.<\/li>\n
- Lebanon-Israel talks face \u2018functional flaws\u2019:<\/strong> Mark Kimmitt, a retired US Army brigadier general and former assistant secretary of state, told Al Jazeera that Washington, DC talks aimed at reinforcing a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon are undermined by the absence of Hezbollah. \u201cWe have Israel, Lebanon and the United States there; we don\u2019t have Hezbollah,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In the US<\/h2>\n\n- Pentagon shake-up:<\/strong> Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, fired Navy Secretary John Phelan, marking the 34th senior official removed under the Trump administration. Undersecretary Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy combat veteran, has been named acting head of the Navy.<\/li>\n
- Senate rejects war powers resolution:<\/strong> The US Senate voted 55-46 to defeat a measure led by Tammy Baldwin, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, to curb Trump\u2019s authority to wage war on Iran, marking the fifth such failed attempt; most Democrats backed it alongside Republican Rand Paul, while most Republicans opposed it along with Democrat John Fetterman, with three senators, including Democrat Mark Warner, not voting.<\/li>\n
- US enforces Iran blockade:<\/strong> The US Central Command said it has turned back 31 vessels, mostly oil tankers, as part of a large-scale naval blockade involving at least 10,000 soldiers, 17 warships and more than 100 aircraft.<\/li>\n
- Blockade \u2018pressuring\u2019 Iran<\/strong>: Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera\u2019s Alan Fisher said Trump believes the ongoing naval blockade is increasing economic pressure on Iran to push it back to talks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In Israel<\/h2>\n\n- \u2018Serious disagreements\u2019:<\/strong> Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel does not have any \u201cserious disagreements\u201d with Lebanon, calling Hezbollah \u201cthe obstacle to peace and normalisation\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In Lebanon and Gaza<\/h2>\n\n- Journalist killed, colleague wounded in Israeli attack:<\/strong> Israeli air attacks in southern Lebanon killed at least five people, including Amal Khalil, a correspondent for Al Akhbar, and wounded freelance journalist Zeinab Faraj on Wednesday, despite an ongoing ceasefire.<\/li>\n
- Reporters \u2018pursued\u2019, rescuers hit:<\/strong> Reporting from Tyre, Al Jazeera\u2019s Heidi Pett said the two reporters were attacked by follow-up Israeli strikes in al-Tayri, with Lebanon\u2019s Ministry of Health saying they were \u201cpursued\u201d as they sheltered; they were pinned down as access roads were hit, and a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance evacuating one came under a stun grenade and gunfire, forcing withdrawal, while the other was later found dead after hours-long recovery efforts.<\/li>\n
- Israel hits Gaza, killing five: <\/strong>Three children were among the five Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on a group of civilians near Al-Qassam Mosque in Beit Lahiya, in the north, Gaza\u2019s Civil Defence agency said Wednesday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
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EXPLAINER Iran says it wants talks, but blames US \u201cbreach of commitments, blockade and threats\u201d for stalling negotiations. Published On 23 Apr 202623 Apr 2026 Senior Iranian officials have blamed Washington for stalled peace talks, citing the United States naval blockade of the country\u2019s ports as a key obstacle, as tensions escalate at sea, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20027","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=20027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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