{"id":906480,"date":"2026-04-20T08:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/906480\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T08:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T08:57:17","slug":"us-attacks-and-seizes-iranian-cargo-ship-as-iran-says-no-decision-yet-on-joining-peace-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/906480\/","title":{"rendered":"US attacks and seizes Iranian cargo ship, as Iran says &#8216;no decision&#8217; yet on joining peace talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US negotiators to head to Pakistan and Iranian cargo ship seized &#8211; a recappublished at 00:37 BST 20 April<\/p>\n<p>00:37 BST 20 April<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Around eight cargo ships pictured in the sea\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d0570d42-c36f-4b36-981b-6c5ba67a5336.jpg.webp\"  width=\"4608\" height=\"2592\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Here&#8217;s a recap of the latest developments. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">US negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday with the intention of holding further talks on ending the war, Trump says &#8211; but Iranian state media cites unnamed officials as saying Tehran has &#8220;no plans for now to participate&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The prospect of further high-level negotiations &#8211; a White House official says Vice-President JD Vance will attend &#8211; comes amid reports of fresh attacks on commercial vessels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Trump says the navy intercepted and took &#8220;custody&#8221; of an Iranian tanker attempting to pass through the US blockade, &#8220;blowing a hole&#8221; in the ship&#8217;s engine room in the process. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Earlier, in the same post announcing his representatives would travel for more talks, Trump renewed his threat to destroy Iranian energy sites and bridges if no deal is reached. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Reports in Iranian media over the weekend suggest Iran is continuing to work on plans to potentially apply a toll to ships passing through the strait &#8211; although it&#8217;s unclear if such a move will be implemented. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Iranian state TV cites unnamed officials as saying that &#8220;continuation of the so-called naval blockade, violation of the ceasefire and threatening US rhetoric&#8221; are slowing progress in reaching an agreement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Trump also accused Iran of violating the ceasefire, saying more commercial ships have been attacked by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A UK maritime agency reported two commercial ships came under fire in the strait on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Iran&#8217;s foreign minister had said on Friday that the strait would be opened &#8211; which was shortly followed by Trump saying the US naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place until a deal is reached. Iran has since said the strait is closed again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US negotiators to head to Pakistan and Iranian cargo ship seized &#8211; a recappublished at 00:37 BST 20&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-906480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116436208710210529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}