{"id":79037,"date":"2026-04-22T23:34:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/79037\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:34:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:34:47","slug":"iran-fires-on-3-ships-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-as-us-maintains-blockade-and-diplomacy-stalls-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/79037\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran fires on 3 ships in the Strait of Hormuz as US maintains blockade and diplomacy stalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized two of them on Wednesday, intensifying its assault on shipping in the key waterway. The attacks came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump\u00a0extended a ceasefire<\/a>\u00a0while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.<\/p>\n

The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports\u00a0through the strait<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 where 20% of the world\u2019s traded oil passes in peacetime \u2014 with no end in sight. Iranian media said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was bringing the two ships to Iran, marking a further escalation, though the White House said the seizures didn\u2019t violate ceasefire terms.<\/p>\n

The conflict has already sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and\u00a0a wide array of other products<\/a>. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, nosed over $100 per barrel, marking a 35% increase from prewar levels, but stock markets\u00a0still appear to be shrugging it off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The European Union energy commissioner, Dan J\u00f8rgensen, warned of lasting impact for consumers and businesses, likening it to other major energy crises over the last half-century. He said the disruption is costing Europe around 500 million euros ($600 million) each day.<\/p>\n

Iran holds firm in apparent tit-for-tat with US<\/p>\n

Iranian media said the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas were being escorted to Iran. The U.S. had earlier seized two Iranian vessels as the ceasefire talks were due to take place in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Technomar, the management company behind the Liberian-registered Epaminondas, said it was \u201capproached and fired upon by a manned gunboat\u201d off the coast of Oman. It said the ship\u2019s bridge was damaged.<\/p>\n

A second cargo ship came under fire hours later, with no report of damage, though the vessel was then stopped in the water. No injuries to the crew of either vessel were reported. The MSC Francesca\u2019s owner could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n

The Guard attacked a third ship, identified as the Euphoria, which had become \u201cstranded\u201d on the Iranian coast, Iranian media reported, without elaborating.<\/p>\n

Iran taking control of two ships didn\u2019t violate truce terms because \u201cthese were not U.S. or Israeli ships, these were two international vessels,\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Channel.<\/p>\n

There have been more than 30 attacks on ships in the Mideast since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28 with a surprise attack on Iran. Before then, the strait was open for all traffic.<\/p>\n

Vortexa, an analytics firm focusing on global energy and freight markets, said it has recorded 34 movements of sanctioned and Iranian-linked tankers in and out of the Persian Gulf in the week after the U.S. imposed its blockade on April 13.<\/p>\n

The firm identified 19 outbound and 15 inbound movements. Six of the outbound movements were \u201cconfirmed laden with Iranian crude, representing about 10.7 million barrels,\u201d it said in an email.<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear whether all those barrels reached markets overseas.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear when talks will restart<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s ability to restrict\u00a0traffic through the strait<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean \u2014 has proved a major strategic advantage<\/p>\n

While the ceasefire means that American and Israeli airstrikes have stopped in Iran \u2014 and Tehran\u2019s missiles no longer target Israel and the wider Middle East \u2014 the maritime standoff continues and could escalate further.<\/p>\n

Without any diplomatic agreement, the attacks will likely deter ships from even attempting to pass through the waterway,\u00a0further squeezing global energy supplies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran\u2019s parliament speaker who\u00a0met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Pakistan<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month, said a complete ceasefire \u201conly makes sense\u201d if not violated by the blockade that is \u201ctaking the world\u2019s economy hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible with such flagrant breach of the ceasefire,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told state TV that Iran has not decided whether to take part in a new round of negotiations with the U.S. He accused the United States of a \u201cdisregard and lack of good faith\u201d in the negotiations.<\/p>\n

Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian mission in Egypt, earlier told The Associated Press no delegation would go to Pakistan until the U.S. lifts its blockade.<\/p>\n

Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Trump hasn\u2019t set a deadline for receiving a proposal from the Iranians. \u201cUltimately, the timeline would be dictated by the commander in chief in the United States,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the Iranian capital, Tehran, many grappled with the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should know where we stand. Is it going to be a ceasefire, peace, or the war is going to continue?\u201d said Mashallah Mohammad Sadegh, 59. \u201cThe way things currently are, one doesn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another French peacekeeper dies after weekend attack in Lebanon<\/p>\n

In southern Lebanon, three separate Israeli strikes killed at least six people and wounded others, according to local authorities. Israel denied carrying out one of the strikes and did not immediately comment on the others.<\/p>\n

It came as Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors prepared for a new meeting in Washington on Thursday toward extending a fragile ceasefire.<\/p>\n

An Israeli drone struck the village of Jabbour, killing one person and wounding two others, according to Lebanon\u2019s state-run National News Agency. Israel\u2019s military denied it attacked the area.<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said two Israeli strikes on al-Tiri village killed three people, including a journalist, and injured one other journalist.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the body of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, who worked for the daily Al-Akhbar, was pulled from under rubble hours later. Khalil had been covering Israel-Hezbollah hostilities since October 2023 and was reporting during the latest war, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s military alleged people in al-Tiri violated the ceasefire and posed a risk to its troops safety. It denied it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area or that it targets journalists.<\/p>\n

The Lebanese Health Ministry said a separate Israeli strike on the village of Yohmor killed two people and injured two others.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel from Lebanon days after the outbreak of the war, sparking retaliatory strikes and an Israeli ground invasion.\u00a0The 10-day ceasefire<\/a>\u00a0that started Friday has been marred by several Israeli strikes and Hezbollah claimed its first attack Tuesday.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron said a French peacekeeper who was wounded in a weekend attack in Lebanon died of his wounds. Another French peacekeeper was killed in the attack Saturday when the force came under small-arms fire in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Macron blamed the attack on Hezbollah, which denied involvement.<\/p>\n

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities. More than 2,290 people have been killed in Lebanon, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen have died in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the Epaminondas container ship.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10057,102,34,16070,196,28593,101,392,22175],"class_list":{"0":"post-79037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-donald-trump-iran","9":"tag-hormuz","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iran-ceasefire","12":"tag-iran-war","13":"tag-iran-war-strait-of-hormuz","14":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","15":"tag-trump","16":"tag-trump-ceasefire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116450985408517807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79037","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=79037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}