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<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 22 Apr 202622 Apr 2026<\/p>\n
An Iranian gunboat has fired on a container vessel near the coast of Oman, according to a British maritime monitoring agency, in an incident that occurred hours after United States President Donald Trump said he would extend a ceasefire with Iran.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said on Wednesday that the ship\u2019s captain reported that the vessel had been approached by a vessel of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) before shots were fired.<\/p>\n
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It \u201chas caused heavy damage to the bridge. No fires or environmental impact reported,\u201d the agency added. No casualties were reported, and all crew members were said to be safe.<\/p>\n
British maritime security firm Vanguard Tech said the ship was sailing under a Liberian flag and had been informed it had permission to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world\u2019s most strategically important waterways.<\/p>\n
Iranian news agency Tasnim, however, said the vessel had ignored warnings issued by Iran\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n
The incident followed a warning from the IRGC\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters after what it described as the US seizure 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 extends ceasefire<\/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 the Strait of Hormuz 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
\u2018Positive and negative signals\u2019 from Tehran<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, 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 said.<\/p>\n
Asadi added that 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 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The IRGC says the aggression came in response to what it described as the US seizure of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[516,361,24,42,1816,18,8976,14,2066,5,6,461,1450],"class_list":{"0":"post-19433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-middle-east","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-oman","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-shipping","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116448004815534506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}