{"id":78587,"date":"2026-04-22T17:25:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/78587\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:25:19","slug":"iran-seizes-and-attacks-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz-hours-after-trump-extends-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/78587\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran seizes and attacks ships in Strait of Hormuz hours after Trump extends ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran seized two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, hours after president Donald Trump announced an indefinite ceasefire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the vessels had been detained for alleged maritime violations<\/a>, according to Iranian news agencies.<\/p>\n

Identified as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas<\/a>, the ships were reportedly captured for \u201coperating without the required authorisation and for manipulating navigation systems\u201d and have been taken to Iranian ports.<\/p>\n

A third vessel, Euphoria, is also reported to have come under attack and is stranded off the Iranian coast. Tehran warned that \u201cdisrupting order and safety in the Strait of Hormuz is considered a red line\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that a ceasefire <\/a>would be extended until Iran\u2019s \u201cseriously fractured leadership\u201d could come up with a \u201cunified plan\u201d for a longer-term agreement.<\/p>\n

A US blockade on Iranian ports and coastlines has continued in the interim and the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Pakistani sources told the New York Post<\/a> that the next round of negotiations in Islamabad were set to take place within \u201c36 to 72 hours\u201d, with Mr Trump adding, \u201cIt\u2019s possible!\u201d via text message by way of confirmation. However, Tehran is yet to show any willingness to engage in a further round of talks.<\/p>\n

\"Shipping<\/p>\n

Shipping traffic through the strait remains at a virtual standstill since the US-Iran war broke out on 28 February, disrupting energy supplies from the Gulf (Getty)<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei acknowledged the ceasefire extension but stopped short of revealing any information about the next stage of discussions.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump drew criticism after the latest developments marked yet another instance of him walking back threats against Iran<\/a>. He hit out at suggestions he had backed down,<\/a> attacking the Wall Street Journal over a headline <\/a>that read: \u201cThe Iranians take Trump for a sucker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many times will President Trump pay Iran for the same real estate?\u201d wrote WSJ journalist Elliot Kaufman in the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwice he has announced the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and twice he has given up US leverage in exchange. Yet the strait remains closed, as Iran\u2019s regime demands more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US leader insisted he had not given into Iranian demands and had left them a \u201ccountry in tatters\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

Donald Trump announced an indefinite ceasefire after suggesting the US would continue bombing Iran (Getty)<\/p>\n

The president hit out: \u201cAn IDIOT on The Wall Street Journal\u2019s Editorial Board, named Elliot Kaufman, just wrote an Op Ed entitled, \u2018The Iranians Take Trump for a Sucker.\u2019 Really? For 47 years, they have killed our people, and many others, and taken advantage of every President, except me \u2014 And what did I give to them, a Country in tatters!\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, oil prices continue to remain high amid the uncertainty. German airline Lufthansa announced it had cut 20,000 flights <\/a>in response to the crisis after soaring fuel prices made journeys on its CityLine subsidiary \u201cunprofitable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suspicion abounds on both sides, with the president accusing Iran of keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed to \u201csave face\u201d while Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, alleged that \u201cTrump\u2019s ceasefire extension is certainly a ploy to buy time for a surprise strike\u201d in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Head of the Iranian mission in Egypt, Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, said Iran \u201cwon\u2019t negotiate under threat\u201d. He added: \u201cWe won\u2019t go to Islamabad before the lifting of the blockade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lebanon is expected to request a one-month extension of a truce agreement with Israel that is set to expire on Sunday, according to a Lebanese official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran seized two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, hours after president Donald Trump announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28267,2566,38,28480,34,28481,24295,46,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-78587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-ceasefire-extension","9":"tag-container-ships","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-indefinite-ceasefire","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-iranian-news-agencies","14":"tag-iranian-ports","15":"tag-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps","16":"tag-strait-of-hormuz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116449530745136928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}