Middle East crisis live: Iran sends mixed signals on talks after US seizes ship

US president Donald Trump has said on a social media post that a deal with Iran will happen “relatively quickly”.

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Writing on Truth Social, he said a deal with Iran will happen “relatively quickly!”.

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He also denies that he is under “pressure” to make a deal. “THIS IS NOT TRUE!” he adds.

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Donald Trump.”,”caption”:”President Donald Trump.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1776709517000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”14.25 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1776711101000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”14.51 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1776709572000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”14.26 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”14.26″,”title”:”Trump claims again an Iran deal will happen ‘relatively quickly'”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 20 Apr 2026 15.58 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sun 19 Apr 2026 22.02 EDT”},{“id”:”69e655fb8f0812556eabefea”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

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  A senior Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation in potential peace talks with the US but stressed that no final decision has been made. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said that the US attack on the Iranian cargo ship this morning, the US naval blockade on Iranian ports and delays in implementing a ceasefire in Lebanon were all “clear violations of the ceasefire”.

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  A US delegation will head to Pakistan “soon” for a new round of peace negotiations with Iran, a source familiar with the plan told AFP on Monday, as Iran said it had yet to decide whether to attend. After initial talks in Islamabad ended without a deal earlier this month, both sides have accused the other of breaching a temporary truce that is now in its final days.

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  In a post to Truth Social, Donald Trump has said that Israel never “talked” him into the war with Iran, after reports that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, put pressure on him into launching their joint assault on Iran in late February. Justifying his military action, widely seen as being launched illegally, the US president claimed that the “results of Oct. 7th” added to his “lifelong opinion” that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.

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  Reuters is reporting that Israeli and ‌Lebanese representatives will hold talks in Washington ​on Thursday. Israel will be represented by its ​ambassador to ​the US, Yechiel Leiter, ‌the ⁠source told the news agency.

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  Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike hit a town in the country’s south on Monday despite a 10-day ceasefire in force between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The state-run National News Agency said that “an enemy drone targeted the vicinity of the Litani River in the town of Qaqaiyat al-Jisr”, without immediately reporting casualties.

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  Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian attempted to temper down tensions after escalations over the weekend between the US and Iran. “War is not in anyone’s interest, and while resisting threats, every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce tensions”, the state-affiliated IRNA reported him saying.

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  Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Monday, Russia’s foreign ministry said. Lavrov reiterated the need to uphold the ceasefire and stressed the importance of continued diplomatic efforts, while the Iranian side confirmed its readiness to do everything in its power to ensure the uninterrupted passage of Russian ships and cargo through the strait of Hormuz.

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  French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday called for the United States and Iran to de-escalate amid increased tensions over the weekend over the strait of Hormuz. “Our position remains the same. We need to settle things through diplomacy. Everyone must calm down,” Macron said during a joint press conference with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk.

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  Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday, health officials said, and fighters from Hamas clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia, witnesses have told Reuters news agency. Medics said one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Bureij camp in the central area of the territory, while another strike killed one person and wounded others in Gaza City.

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  Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, said he had appointed Simon Karam, a former ambassador to the US, to lead bilateral talks with Israel. “The objective of the negotiation option is to halt hostile actions, end the Israeli occupation of southern areas, and deploy the army up to the internationally recognised southern borders,” a statement from the Lebanese presidency reads.

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  Iraq has reopened the Rabia border crossing with Syria after more than a decade to accelerate overland fuel oil exports and revive cross-border trade amid disruption to Gulf shipping following the Iran war, Iraqi border officials said on Monday. The crossing, located in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, will allow fuel oil shipments to be trucked through Syria while also reopening the route to commercial trade traffic that has been halted since the conflict that followed Syria’s civil war, officials said.

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  Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez – who has been among the most vocal European critics of Israel’s war in Gaza – has said he will ask the European Union to end its association agreement with Israel on Tuesday. “The time has come for the EU to break its association agreement with Israel,” Sánchez said on Sunday.

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  Ratcheting up the tension, the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship, the M/V Touska, that tried to run its blockade. Iran has vowed to retaliate. Hours after the announcement, the US military released footage of incident, including video of US Marines rappelling onto the vessel.

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In a new post to Truth Social, Donald Trump has said that Israel never “talked” him into the war with Iran, after reports that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, put pressure on him into launching their joint assault on Iran in late February.

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Justifying his military action, widely seen as being launched illegally, the US president claimed that the “results of Oct. 7th” added to his “lifelong opinion” that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.

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As my colleague Julian Borger notes in this story, Trump has repeatedly claimed, since starting the war, that Iran had been two to four weeks from making a nuclear weapon and firing it at the US and Israel, a claim rejected as absurd by most experts.

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Trump signed off his Truth Social post by saying if Iran’s new leaders are “smart” then the country can have a “great and prosperous” future.

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He has previously said the US has been negotiating with figures inside of Iran other than the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has reportedly been recovering from severe facial and leg injuries suffered in the airstrike that killed his father at the beginning of the war.

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The New York Post is reporting that vice-president JD Vance and the rest of the US delegation is set to land in Pakistan within hours for talks on Iran.

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“We’re supposed to have the talks,” Trump said. “So I would assume at this point nobody’s playing games.”

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The US president told the Post that US delegation – which also includes envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law/adviser Jared Kushner – is on its way to Islamabad, despite Tehran saying t has “no plans for the next round” of peace talks.

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“They’re heading over now,” Trump said just after 9am EST. “They’ll be there tonight, (Islamabad) time.” He suggested he would be ready to meet top Iranian leaders if a breakthrough in negotiations is achieved. We have not yet been able to independently verify any of the claims made in the New York Post’s story.

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Vance left Islamabad last Sunday after 21 hours of failed peace talks with Iranian officials. He blamed the failure on Iran’s apparent refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, while Iranian delegates claimed the US needed to do more to win their trust.

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Vance waved as he boarded Air Force Two following the unsuccessful talks in Islamabad on 12 April 2026.”,”caption”:”JD Vance waved as he boarded Air Force Two following the unsuccessful talks in Islamabad on 12 April 2026.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1776692304000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”09.38 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1776696961000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”10.56 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1776693094000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”09.51 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”09.51″,”title”:”US delegation to land in Islamabad for talks within hours – report”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 20 Apr 2026 15.58 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sun 19 Apr 2026 22.02 EDT”},{“id”:”69e629e18f0812556eabed99″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

A senior Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation in potential peace talks with the US but stressed that no final decision has been made.

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As we have been reporting, Iran said earlier that it has no plans for a new round of talks with the US, ahead of the end of the ceasefire on Wednesday (see post at 08.59 for more details).

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The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said that the US attack on the Iranian cargo ship this morning, the US naval blockade on Iranian ports and delays in implementing a ceasefire in Lebanon were all “clear violations of the ceasefire”.

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It is unclear whether a second round of negotiations scheduled to take place in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad today will go ahead as planned.

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Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, said he had appointed Simon Karam, a former ambassador to the US, to lead bilateral talks with Israel.

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“The objective of the negotiation option is to halt hostile actions, end the Israeli occupation of southern areas, and deploy the army up to the internationally recognised southern borders,” a statement from the Lebanese presidency reads.

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“The upcoming negotiations are separate from any other negotiations because Lebanon faces two options: either the continuation of the war with all its humanitarian, social, economic, and sovereignty repercussions, or negotiation to put an end to this war and achieve sustainable stability, and I have chosen negotiation, and I am full of hope that we will be able to save Lebanon.”

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aftermath of Israeli warplanes launching intense airstrikes on a residential neighbourhood in Tyre, southern Lebanon, before a ceasefire took effect.”,”caption”:”The aftermath of Israeli warplanes launching intense airstrikes on a residential neighbourhood in Tyre, southern Lebanon, before a ceasefire took effect.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Abdul Kader Al Bay/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, which took effect from midnight on 16 April. Within hours, Israeli forces reportedly started carrying out artillery shelling in several border areas in violation of the agreement.

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The terms of the ceasefire prohibit Israel from offensive attacks on Lebanon. But they appear to leave more room for “self-defense,” including “against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks”.

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Israel started a war on Lebanon on 2 March when Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group and political party, launched rocket fire at Israel after US-Israeli airstrikes killed former Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in Tehran. The IDF responded with a wave of intense strikes across Lebanon, targeting what it claimed was Hezbollah infrastructure, though many civilians were killed, homes destroyed and over 1.2 million people displaced across the country.

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During the war, Israel also launched a ground invasion several kilometres into Lebanese territory, with a stated goal to push Hezbollah back from the border in order to stop the ability of the group to fire rockets into communities in northern Israel. Israeli officials now say Israel will stay in control of dozens of towns and villages as part of what it describes as a security buffer zone – but from the ground this looks like a prelude to long term occupation.

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Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, has been quoted by Al Jazeera as having said that Iran has no plans for a new round of talks with the US, saying Washington has violated the agreement from its implementation.

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The spokesperson also said Tehran can’t forget US attacks on Iran during previous diplomatic talks as he insisted that Iran will continue defending its national interests.

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As a reminder, the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on 28 February, and the 12-day war last year both were launched when Iran and the US were in talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

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Baghaei also said the US proposals have been “unserious” and its demands “unrealistic” and said Tehran does not believe in ultimatums.

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Donald Trump has threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran if Tehran doesn’t accept the terms of the deal the US is laying out.

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He told Fox News on Sunday that the deal the US is offering, which entails reopening the strait of Hormuz and ensuring Iran does not have enriched uranium, was a “very fair and reasonable deal” and unless Iran accepts, he vowed to knock out “every single Power Plant” and “every single Bridge”. Iran has refused to give into what it describes as “maximalist” demands from the US.

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Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian attempted to temper down tensions after escalations over the weekend between the US and Iran.

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“War is not in anyone’s interest, and while resisting threats, every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce tensions”, the state-affiliated IRNA reported him saying.

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Still, Iran has not committed to joining US negotiators for another round of talks in Pakistan, and the president said “distrust of the enemy and vigilance in interactions are an undeniable necessity.”

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The US and Iran were in the middle of negotiations when Israel and US launched a military attack on Iran in February.

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On Sunday, the US president, Donald Trump,. accused Iran of firing on ships passing through the strait of Hormuz in what he claimed was in violation of the ceasefire agreement. A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, however, said it was Washington’s blockade of the waterway that was a violation of the agreement.

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Iranian negotiators have reportedly said that no further talks will take place unless the US ended its blockade of Iranian ports.

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The IDF has continued to demolish homes and other buildings including educational institutions in villages in southern Lebanon, even after the ceasefire agreed between the countries last week.

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The army has hired civilian contractors to destroy homes, with some operators paid a daily rate while others are paid based on the number of buildings they destroy, according to Haaretz. As many as 20 excavators are running operations in a single village, the Israeli newspaper reported based on conversations with army commanders.

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Academics have described the operations as domicide, a strategy that is used to systematically destroy and damage civilian housing to render entire areas uninhabitable.

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Buildings in villages, including educational institutions, homes and others are destroyed after receiving permission, in a policy the IDF refers to as the “money plow”, according to the newspaper.

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Israel Katz, the country’s defence minister, previously said that “all houses in villages near the border in Lebanon will be demolished in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun models in Gaza” and said that 600,000 residents of southern Lebanon will not be allowed to return to their homes until Israelis living on the northern border are safe. Academics have questioned whether many will ever be able to return – or whether their homes will still exist.

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The IDF did not give any comment to Haaretz. On Sunday, the force said it had verified a viral image that showed a IDF soldier destroying a statue of Jesus with a hammer in the Christian town of Debel. An official account distanced itself from the solider and said that “the IDF is operating to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure established by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon”.

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In case you’re just joining us, here’s today’s main developments. It is 9.30am in Tehran, 9am in Jerusalem, 11am in Islamabad and 2am in Washington DC.

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  Iranian state media reported that Tehran was not planning to take part in peace talks with the US, hours after Trump said he was dispatching negotiators to Islamabad for the scheduled Monday meeting. “There are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks,” state broadcaster IRIB said, citing Iranian sources.

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  Donald Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday, and he again threatened to destroy its power plants and bridges if no deal is reached. Trump did not say who would lead the delegation, but a White House official said it was vice-president JD Vance.

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  Ratcheting up the tension, the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship, the M/V Touska, that tried to run its blockade. Iran has vowed to retaliate. Hours after the announcement, the US military released footage of incident, including video of US Marines rappelling onto the vessel.

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  Despite all the uncertainty, host Pakistan appeared to be preparing for the US-Iran talks to proceed. Two giant US C-17 cargo planes landed at an airbase on Sunday afternoon, carrying security equipment and vehicles in preparation for the US delegation’s arrival, two Pakistani security sources said. Barbed wire was rolled out near the Serena Hotel, where last week’s talks were held, and the hotel has told all guests to leave.

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  Oil prices surged after Iran closed the strait of Hormuz at the weekend, just a day after reopening it. Brent crude climbed to $95.64 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate increased to $87.90 per barrel. However, equities across Asia rose in early trading on Monday.

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  The Israeli army has confirmed an image circulating on social media that shows a soldier in Lebanon hitting a statue of Jesus Christ is authentic. The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off of a cross.

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  The Israel army said it viewed the incident with “great severity”, adding that the “soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops”.

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  Iran will resume international flights on Monday from Mashhad airport in the country’s north-east, its civil aviation authority said.

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The Israeli military has just now warned residents in southern Lebanon not to move south of a specified line of villages or approach areas near the Litani River, saying its forces remain deployed in the area during a ceasefire due to what it described as continued Hezbollah activity.

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In a statement, military spokesperson Avichay Adraee also urged civilians not to return to multiple border villages until further notice, citing security risks.

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Further to this, the Israeli military on Sunday published for the first time a map of its new deployment line inside Lebanon, bringing dozens of mostly abandoned Lebanese villages under its control. You can see that map below:

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handout graphic of a map, according to the Israeli military, shows the Forward Defense Line and the area in which they are operating in southern Lebanon.”,”caption”:”A handout graphic of a map, according to the Israeli military, shows the Forward Defense Line and the area in which they are operating in southern Lebanon.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Israel Defence Forces/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Stretching east to west, the deployment line on the map runs 5-10km (about 3-6 miles) deep from the border into Lebanese territory, where Israel has said it plans to create a so-called buffer zone.

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Israeli forces have destroyed Lebanese villages in the area, saying their aim is to protect northern Israeli towns from Hezbollah attacks. It has created buffer zones in Syria and in Gaza, where it controls more than half the enclave.

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The US has just released some more footage of the encounter with the Iranian flagged vessel, the M/V Touska.

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In a post on X, US Central Command said US Marines had departed the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli by helicopter and rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel.

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U.S. Marines depart amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) by helicopter and transit over the Arabian Sea to board and seize M/V Touska. The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 20, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska’s… pic.twitter.com/Vk88389cDr

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 20, 2026

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It said the US had “disabled Touska’s propulsion when the commercial ship failed to comply with repeated warnings” over a six-hour period.

n Iran has since vowed to retaliate.

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In case you’re just joining us, the US military has released footage of their destroyer USS Spruance firing at an Iranian-flagged tanker, which Iran later vowed it would retaliate for.

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US Central Command released a video of the warning message sent by the Spruance to the M/V Touska, saying it shows the moments before the Touska was seized for crossing the US-imposed blockade line in the Gulf of Oman.

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“Motor vessel Touska, Motor vessel Touska. Vacate your engine room. Vacate your engine room. We are about to subject you to disabling fire,” can be heard in the video. Later, three rounds are fired, leaving smoke in their wake.

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Central Command said its fire targeted the vessel’s engine room before forces seized the ship. It said Touska was headed to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and ignored multiple US warnings over six hours to evacuate the engine room. The Spruance then fired, after which Marines boarded and took hold of the ship.

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Oil prices surged on a re-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East war after Iran closed the strait of Hormuz at the weekend, just a day after reopening it.

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In early trading on Monday, the price of Brent crude climbed 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate increased 6.4% to $87.90 per barrel.

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S+P 500 futures fell around 0.6% and European futures fell 1.1%. But equity benchmarks in Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo shrugged off risks to advance, with Taiwan’s shares touching a record high and the other two not far behind.

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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8%, Japan’s Nikkei climbed 1% and South Korea’s Kopsi rose 1.4%.

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However, one of the strongest notes of caution in markets on Monday came from Australia’s largest business lender, National Australia Bank, which flagged a $500m impairment charge as it expects the war to drive up bad debts.

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Bahrain’s king has ordered a review of citizenship of those deemed a threat to the island kingdom, amid an intensified crackdown on dissent during the war in the Middle East.

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According to the state-run Bahrain News Agency, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ordered the government to immediately take measures against “those who have betrayed the nation or undermined its security and stability”, including stripping Bahraini citizenship from those “who don’t deserve it”.

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“The situation is still delicate,” the king was quoted as saying.

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Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, has been one of the hardest hit by Iranian missile and drone attacks during the war.

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Authorities in the small Shiite-majority island, which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, have detained many people over the course of the war.

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Now in its eighth week, the Iran war has killed more than 5,000 people across several countries.

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At least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, the Associated Press has reported. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have also been killed.

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family mourns a relative killed in the war, at a temporary graveyard in Tyre, south Lebanon.”,”caption”:”A family mourns a relative killed in the war, at a temporary graveyard in Tyre, south Lebanon.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1776651489000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”22.18 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1776652833000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”22.40 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1776652098000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”22.28 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”22.28″,”title”:”More than 5,000 killed since war began: report”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 20 Apr 2026 15.58 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sun 19 Apr 2026 22.02 EDT”},{“id”:”69e57dff8f089feed64f5e18″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

“,”elementId”:”95630b36-9e88-40a0-9cd1-55bd389dc258″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The shaky two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran was under further pressure on Monday morning, after the US said that it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to run its blockade, and Iran said it would retaliate.

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Efforts to build a more lasting peace in the region likewise appeared to be on uncertain ground, as Iranian state media said Tehran would not participate in a second round of negotiations that the US had hoped to kick off before the ceasefire expires this week.

“,”elementId”:”1d25904e-21d3-4d19-8ab7-cf74f1e49a81″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Trump had earlier warned Iran that the US would destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if Tehran rejected his terms, continuing a pattern of such threats throughout the war.

“,”elementId”:”70eaf378-14e8-431d-bc5d-682e566fa185″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

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  Iran has reportedly rejected participation in a second round of peace talks with the US in Pakistan, citing “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”, according to the official IRNA news agency.

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  Hours before Iran’s statement, Trump said his negotiators would arrive in Islamabad on Monday evening. A White House official said the delegation would be led by vice-president JD Vance and include Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

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  Donald Trump said in a post on Sunday that the US marines have taken custody of a vessel that tried to get past the American blockade on Iranian ports, adding that US forces stopped the ship by blowing a hole in its engine room.

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  The US military confirmed that the US destroyer fired “several rounds” towards an Iranian-flagged ship that was attempting to pass through its naval blockade. In a statement released on Sunday, US Central Command said the USS Spruance intercepted the Iranian-flagged Touska ship as it travelled towards an Iranian port “in violation of the US blockade.”

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  The US blockade of Iran’s ports is a violation of the ceasefire agreement and is “both unlawful and criminal”, Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said on Sunday.

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  Oil prices jumped, the US dollar rose and stock futures fell on Monday as investors dealt with conflicting messages about the Iran war and news that the strait of Hormuz was closed again. In early Asian trading Brent crude futures jumped about 7% to $96.85 a barrel and S+P 500 futures fell about 0.9%. The euro was down 0.3% at $1.1735 and the yen eased about 0.2% to 158.95 per dollar.

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“,”elementId”:”1dedd564-1be3-483c-a320-fdae75b71422″}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1776650559000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”22.02 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1776650553000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”22.02 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1776650559000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”22.02 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”22.02″,”title”:”Summary”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 20 Apr 2026 15.58 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Sun 19 Apr 2026 22.02 EDT”}],”filterKeyEvents”:false,”id”:”key-events-carousel-mobile”,”renderingTarget”:”Web”,”serverTime”:1776716028694}”>

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Patrick Wintour

The $2bn (£1.5bn) a week that Donald Trump was spending on his reckless war in Iran could have funded saving more than 87 million lives, the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency, Tom Fletcher, said on Monday.

He also warned the normalisation of violent language, such as threatening to bomb Iran back to the stone ages, was very dangerous since it encourages every “wannabe autocrat” to use similar threats and tactics, including the destruction of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Speaking at Chatham House in London, Fletcher, a former UK diplomat and adviser on foreign policy to successive prime ministers, also accused British politicians of forming a circular firing squad for more than 10 years which has left the UK in a “defensive crouch”.

The scale of the recent UK aid cuts had been so severe that people giggle at conferences where the UK claims to be thought leaders on the subject, he said, before later adding the judgment might seem harsh.

Fletcher, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is wrestling with a humanitarian aid funding crisis he described as cataclysmic, amounting to a 50% cut in his budget.

This is driven not just by the US but also by international cuts to overseas aid driven by a mix of ideology and demands from defence budgets.

Read the full story:

Earlier, we reported on the US vice-president’s upcoming trip to Islamabad. My colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Hannah Ellis-Petersen bring us the latest details:

JD Vance is expected to fly to Islamabad at the head of a US diplomatic delegation on Tuesday if Iran agrees to further talks in the Pakistani capital as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms.

The US vice-president will travel with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law – though Iran’s president warned there remained a “deep historical mistrust” of the US.

Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was concerned about “unconstructive and contradictory signals from American officials” and concluded they amounted to an effort to seek the country’s surrender. “Iranians do not submit to force,” he said.

However, one senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation, amid reports that its delegation would again be headed by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf if Vance attends.

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Reuters reports that Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi told his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar that the US “continued violations of the ceasefire” are a major obstacle to the continuation of the diplomatic process, citing an Iranian foreign ministry statement.

Araqchi told Dar during a phone call that Iran, while taking all aspects of the matter into account, will decide on how to proceed further.

The Board of Peace’s lead envoy for Gaza told Reuters on Monday that he was “fairly optimistic” a plan for disarmament of Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza can be agreed but cautioned that it will still take time.

During an interview in Brussels, Nickolay Mladenov said: “We’ve had some very serious discussions with Hamas over the last few weeks, they’re not easy.

“I’m fairly optimistic that we will be able to come up with an arrangement that works for all sides and, most importantly, works for the people in Gaza.”

He also states that he believes Hamas’ disarmament is a sticking point in talks to implement the plan and cement an October ceasefire that halted two years of full-blown war. Violence has continued in the Palestinian territory, much of which remains in ruins.

In his latest Truth Social post, US president Donald Trump said the country would not lift its blockade of Iranian ports until Iran has agreed to a deal.

“THE BLOCKADE, which we will not take off until there is a ‘DEAL,’ is absolutely destroying Iran,” Trump wrote.

“They are losing $500m Dollars a day, an unsustainable number, even in the short run,” he said.

In a separate post, he criticised the US media – naming the “failing” New York Times, the “disgusting” Wall Street Journal and the “almost defunct” Washington Post. He accused these outlets of sabotaging the US war effort by causing Tehran to be “confused”.

Trump claims again an Iran deal will happen ‘relatively quickly’

US president Donald Trump has said on a social media post that a deal with Iran will happen “relatively quickly”.

Writing on Truth Social, he said a deal with Iran will happen “relatively quickly!”.

He also denies that he is under “pressure” to make a deal. “THIS IS NOT TRUE!” he adds.

The Lebanese army has said that construction has been completed on an alternative bridge over the Litani river, after the original, the Tayr Falsiya, was destroyed by Israeli attacks.

As Al Jazeera reports, the bridge spans the Litani River, which Israel had previously set its sights on as the northern end of a desired “buffer zone” in Lebanon.

The Lebanese army has said that the newly constructed bridge is now open to vehicles.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said the deal the US is negotiating with Iran will be “far better” than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal signed by former President Barack Obama under which international sanctions were lifted in exchange for limitations on Tehran’s nuclear program. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018.

Trump claimed on Monday the new deal with Iran would “guarantee Peace, Security, and Safety, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for Europe, America, and everywhere else.”

Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, received a phone call from Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi, on Monday, where they discussed cooperation between the two countries and the latest developments in the region.

The discussion included talks on “the ceasefire between the US and Iran, and the efforts being exerted to reduce tension and promote regional peace and security,” reads a statement by the Qatari ministry.

The officials “underlined the utmost necessity for all parties to respond to the ongoing mediation efforts.”

The day so far

• A senior Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency that Tehran is “positively reviewing” its participation in potential peace talks with the US but stressed that no final decision has been made. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said that the US attack on the Iranian cargo ship this morning, the US naval blockade on Iranian ports and delays in implementing a ceasefire in Lebanon were all “clear violations of the ceasefire”.

• A US delegation will head to Pakistan “soon” for a new round of peace negotiations with Iran, a source familiar with the plan told AFP on Monday, as Iran said it had yet to decide whether to attend. After initial talks in Islamabad ended without a deal earlier this month, both sides have accused the other of breaching a temporary truce that is now in its final days.

• In a post to Truth Social, Donald Trump has said that Israel never “talked” him into the war with Iran, after reports that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, put pressure on him into launching their joint assault on Iran in late February. Justifying his military action, widely seen as being launched illegally, the US president claimed that the “results of Oct. 7th” added to his “lifelong opinion” that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.

• Reuters is reporting that Israeli and ‌Lebanese representatives will hold talks in Washington ​on Thursday. Israel will be represented by its ​ambassador to ​the US, Yechiel Leiter, ‌the ⁠source told the news agency.

• Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike hit a town in the country’s south on Monday despite a 10-day ceasefire in force between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The state-run National News Agency said that “an enemy drone targeted the vicinity of the Litani River in the town of Qaqaiyat al-Jisr”, without immediately reporting casualties.

• Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian attempted to temper down tensions after escalations over the weekend between the US and Iran. “War is not in anyone’s interest, and while resisting threats, every rational and diplomatic path should be used to reduce tensions”, the state-affiliated IRNA reported him saying.

• Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Monday, Russia’s foreign ministry said. Lavrov reiterated the need to uphold the ceasefire and stressed the importance of continued diplomatic efforts, while the Iranian side confirmed its readiness to do everything in its power to ensure the uninterrupted passage of Russian ships and cargo through the strait of Hormuz.

• French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday called for the United States and Iran to de-escalate amid increased tensions over the weekend over the strait of Hormuz. “Our position remains the same. We need to settle things through diplomacy. Everyone must calm down,” Macron said during a joint press conference with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk.

• Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday, health officials said, and fighters from Hamas clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia, witnesses have told Reuters news agency. Medics said one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Bureij camp in the central area of the territory, while another strike killed one person and wounded others in Gaza City.

• Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, said he had appointed Simon Karam, a former ambassador to the US, to lead bilateral talks with Israel. “The objective of the negotiation option is to halt hostile actions, end the Israeli occupation of southern areas, and deploy the army up to the internationally recognised southern borders,” a statement from the Lebanese presidency reads.

• Iraq has reopened the Rabia border crossing with Syria after more than a decade to accelerate overland fuel oil exports and revive cross-border trade amid disruption to Gulf shipping following the Iran war, Iraqi border officials said on Monday. The crossing, located in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, will allow fuel oil shipments to be trucked through Syria while also reopening the route to commercial trade traffic that has been halted since the conflict that followed Syria’s civil war, officials said.

• Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez – who has been among the most vocal European critics of Israel’s war in Gaza – has said he will ask the European Union to end its association agreement with Israel on Tuesday. “The time has come for the EU to break its association agreement with Israel,” Sánchez said on Sunday.

• Ratcheting up the tension, the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship, the M/V Touska, that tried to run its blockade. Iran has vowed to retaliate. Hours after the announcement, the US military released footage of incident, including video of US Marines rappelling onto the vessel.

Oil and gas prices have jumped again as shipping through the strait of Hormuz came to a virtual standstill after Iran closed the waterway over the US blockade and Donald Trump announced an Iranian cargo ship had been seized trying to get past.

Tehran has accused Washington of violating the fragile ceasefire agreement. With uncertainty over a second round of peace talks, fears continue to grow about the scale of the energy shock caused by the war.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose…

Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike hit a town in the country’s south on Monday despite a 10-day ceasefire in force between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The state-run National News Agency said that “an enemy drone targeted the vicinity of the Litani River in the town of Qaqaiyat al-Jisr”, without immediately reporting casualties.

Under the ceasefire, Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

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