Middle East crisis live: Trump orders navy to attack any boats laying mines in strait of Hormuz

Trump claims US controls strait of Hormuz and Iran ‘doesn’t know who its leader is’

Donald Trump has claimed the US has “total control” of the strait of Hormuz, as he berated Iran for “not knowing” who its leader is.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said:

Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the “Hardliners,” who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the “Moderates,” who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY! We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is “Sealed up Tight,” until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

His latest remarks followed an earlier post saying he ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill” any boat “that is putting mines in the waters of the strait of Hormuz.”

He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.

Britain is prepared to deploy a squadron of RAF Typhoons based in Qatar to patrol over the strait of Hormuz as part of a multinational mission to keep open the strategic waterway once the Iran war comes to an end.

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The UK military also offered to deploy mine-hunting drones and specialist divers to help clear the strait mined by Iran – but no decision has been made on whether HMS Dragon or another warship would also be deployed.

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The Typhoon proposal was at the heart of the offer made by British military planners during a 30-country two-day meeting held at the UK’s Northwood headquarters and organised jointly with France.

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Eight of the fast jets are currently based in Qatar and a number were active in shooting down Shahed drones in defence of allied countries in the Gulf during the 38-day war in the Middle East that followed the US-Israel attack on Iran.

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Germany, Norway, South Korea and Australia were among the countries that sent representatives to the meeting, which ended on Thursday. British sources would not confirm if the US participated, though they insisted the Americans were “kept abreast”.

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US President Donald Trump is slated to meet Israeli and Lebanese envoys when they hold a second round of peace talks on Thursday, a US official said.

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“The ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon will now take place at the White House,” the official said. “President Trump will greet both representatives upon their arrival.”

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US president Donald Trump said he has ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill any boat” that is laying mines in the strait of Hormuz. He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.

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Israel is awaiting the green light from the US to “return Iran to the Stone Age”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Thursday. “Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran. The IDF is ready in defense and offense, and the targets are marked,” Katz said.

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An American-Kuwaiti journalist held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war has been cleared of all charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to the New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on 3 March for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

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Italian UN peacekeepers have replaced the statue of Jesus Christ vandalised by Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday. The sculpture of a crucified Jesus was located in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

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The United Nations said Thursday it was “working on” maintaining a presence in Lebanon once the mandate for its Unifil peacekeeping force expires at the end of the year, AFP reported. “In terms of the post-Unifil, we’re currently in the process of working on these options,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, with the Lebanese government “very clear that they would want to keep a UN presence”.

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An Israeli drone strike killed three men inside a car Thursday in central Gaza Strip, health officials said. Those killed were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

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Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said. In a short statement, the ministry announced that “15-year-old Youssef Sameh Shtayyeh was killed by the [Israeli] occupation’s gunfire in Nablus”, in the north of the West Bank.

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The US military stopped and boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian ocean which the Pentagon said was carrying oil from Iran, in the second such action this week. The US defence department said its forces carried out “a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding” of the M/T Majestic X overnight.

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Italy is ready to deploy up to four vessels, including two minesweepers, to the strait of Hormuz to clear it of mines, the Italian navy’s chief of staff, Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, said. Speaking to Italy’s Rai network, Bergotto said the mission is being planned with the UK, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

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The son of the former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979, accused Europe of standing by and allowing the Tehran government to continue the bloody repression of protests that killed thousands at the end of last year.

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The deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, Hamid Reza Haji Babaei, said Iran has received its first revenue from tolls levied on ships in the strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The fees have been deposited into the central bank of Iran, the news agency reported, without disclosing the amount.

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Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said the world is facing “the biggest energy security threat in history”. In an interview with CNBC, Birol cited the loss of around 13 million barrels per day of oil supply due to the Iran war and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

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Israel is awaiting the green light from the US to “return Iran to the Stone Age”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.

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“Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran. The IDF is ready in defense and offense, and the targets are marked,” Katz said.

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He told The Times of Israel that Israel is “awaiting a green light from the United States, first and foremost to complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty, the initiator of the extermination plan against Israel, and the successors of the successors of the leadership of the Iranian terror regime, and in addition to return Iran to the age of darkness and stone by blowing up central energy and electricity facilities and crushing national economic infrastructure.”

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Katz added:

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This time the attack will be different and deadly and will add devastating blows in the most painful places, following the enormous blows the Iranian terror regime has already suffered so far, that will shake and collapse its foundations.

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Threats to bomb power stations or attack civilian targets, if enacted, would constitute a war crime. Article 52 of a 1977 protocol to the Geneva conventions states clearly that “civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals”.

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US president Donald Trump was criticised for declaring that “a whole civilization will die, never to be brought back again” in a threat against Iran.

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The Lebanese journalist killed in an Israeli attack on Wednesday had previously spoken of receiving a threat via an unidentified Israeli phone number that she would be killed if she did not leave southern Lebanon, where she had long been based and worked.

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Amal Khalil, 43, who worked for al-Akhbar newspaper and had described herself as supporting the resistance against Israel “whether communist or Islamist”, was killed yesterday in a sustained attack by Israeli forces in which a colleague was also wounded.

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woman holds a microphone in front of a newspaper featuring Amal Khalil’s picture on the front page.”,”caption”:”A colleague of journalist Amal Khalil, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Wednesday, places a microphone on a newspaper featuring Khalil’s picture during a vigil in Beirut, Lebanon.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

In 2024, Khalil told local media she had received an Israeli death threat warning her to leave the south and threatening to destroy her home and decapitate her.

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Khalil said she had “received a message from an Israeli enemy” urging her to leave the south. “I have informed the relevant authorities about this, as the enemy has recently used this tactic with many others there,” she said.

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According to Khalil, the warning – allegedly sent from an Israeli phone number – included details of her recent movements and said: “We know where you are and we will reach you when the time comes.” It was not clear who had sent the message.

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Khalil was the ninth journalist killed in Lebanon this year. Last month three journalists were killed in a double-tap attack.

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Read the full report here:

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Donald Trump has claimed the US has “total control” of the strait of Hormuz, as he berated Iran for “not knowing” who its leader is.

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Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said:

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n

Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the “Hardliners,” who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the “Moderates,” who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY! We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is “Sealed up Tight,” until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

n

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His latest remarks followed an earlier post saying he ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill” any boat “that is putting mines in the waters of the strait of Hormuz.”

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He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.

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US president Donald Trump said he has ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill any boat” that is laying mines in the strait of Hormuz.

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He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.

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In a post on Truth Social, he wrote:

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n

I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation.

n

Additionally, our mine “sweepers” are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

n

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The US defense department said Thursday its forces boarded a vessel in the Indian Ocean that was providing material support to Iran, the second time it had done so in three days.

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“Overnight, US forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean,” it said on X.

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The deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, Hamid Reza Haji Babaei, said Iran has received its first revenue from tolls levied on ships in the strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

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The fees have been deposited into the central bank of Iran, the news agency reported, without disclosing the amount.

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A Pentagon assessment has estimated it could take six months to completely clear the strait of Hormuz of mines deployed by the Iranian army, the Washington Post reported.

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Carrying out the task would unlikely begin until after the war ends, according to the Pentagon assessment, shared in a classified briefing for members of the House armed services committee earlier this week.

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Speaking to the Washington Post about that assessment, three officials close to the discussion said the six-month estimate frustrated both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. They were reportedly told that Iran may have placed 20 or more mines in and around the strait, with some floated remotely using GPS technology which makes them more difficult to detect.

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The narrow waterway, which carried a fifth of global oil and gas supplies before the war, has been effectively shut since the start of the conflict on 28 February despite a ceasefire largely halting the fighting between the US, Israel and Iran.

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Commenting on the Washington Post’s report, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell acknowledged the assessment was made in a classified briefing and described the information as “inaccurate”.

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If you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of the latest developments in the Middle East to bring you up to speed.

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n
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized two vessels in the strait of Hormuz for what it called maritime violations and escorted them to Iranian shores, according to the shipping companies and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. Wednesday’s move was the first time Iran has seized ships since the war began in late February.

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Donald Trump announced earlier that the US would extend the ceasefire with Iran until the country’s leaders came up with a “unified proposal” to US negotiating positions amid Tehran’s “seriously fractured” government. He had earlier threatened to renew bombing.

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Trump was “satisfied” with the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The US president had not set a deadline for Iran to submit a peace proposal, she said.

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Iranian officials said they had not agreed to any extension of the truce, and criticised Trump’s decision to maintain the US naval blockade. Lead Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said a full ceasefire only made sense if the blockade was lifted.

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screen shot from a video said to show Iranian forces during the operation seizing the container ships MSC Francesca and Epaminondas in the strait of Hormuz, as broadcast on Iranian state TV”,”caption”:”A screen shot from a video said to show Iranian forces during the operation seizing the container ships MSC Francesca and Epaminondas in the strait of Hormuz, as broadcast on Iranian state TV.”,”credit”:”Photograph: IRIB/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

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The status of a two-week ceasefire – due to expire earlier this week – remained unclear and there was no sign of peace talks restarting.

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The Pentagon said the US secretary of the navy, John Phelan, would depart the office “effective immediately”, without providing an explanation for his sudden exit amid the naval blockade.

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The US-Israeli war against Iran is “starting to weaken Europe”, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told his German counterpart.

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Lebanon is reportedly planing to ask for a month-long extension of the soon-expiring ceasefire with Israel at a fresh round of talks between the countries in Washington on Thursday.

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Iran has executed a man convicted of links to the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq and to Israel’s intelligence service, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan said on Thursday.

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Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and wounded a photographer accompanying her, a senior Lebanese military official and Khalil’s employer said. The death of Khalil, 43, brought the death toll to five people on Wednesday – the deadliest day since the 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah was announced on 16 April. Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam said Israeli targeting of journalists and obstructing relief efforts constituted war crimes. Israel’s military earlier denied it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area.

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Oil prices leapt 4% on Thursday after Iran vowed not to reopen the Hormuz strait amid the US naval blockade despite the truce extension. The benchmark US oil contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 4.06% to $96.73 a barrel, while the international oil benchmark Brent North Sea crude climbed 3.62% to $105.63. Both eased back minutes after.

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Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, were killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school amid mounting assaults on education in the territory, witnesses and local officials have said.

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EU leaders meeting in Cyprus on Thursday need to start preparing a playbook on what should happen if a member country facing attack puts out a call for help from bloc partners, the president of Cyprus said.

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Nikos Christodoulides said EU leaders would discuss “giving substance” to article 42.7 of the bloc’s treaties, which oblige all 27 member states to assist each other in such times of crisis.

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“We have article 42.7 and we don’t know what is going to happen if a member state triggers this article,” he told the Associated Press ahead of an EU-Middle East summit he is hosting later this week which is expected to focus on the Iran war and its fallout.

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The issue resonates particularly with Christodoulides, who appealed for help from fellow EU countries last month when a Shahed drone struck the British air base RAF Akrotiri in southern Cyprus early in the Middle East war. Cypriot officials said the drone was launched from Lebanon.

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Greece, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal dispatched ships with anti-drone capabilities to help defend the island.

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defence secretary John Healey talks to a pilot at RAF Akrotiri on 5 March after the airbase was targeted by Iranian drones”,”caption”:”UK defence secretary John Healey talks to a pilot at RAF Akrotiri on 5 March after the airbase was targeted by Iranian drones. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Christodoulides said he was pleased to see that fellow EU leaders now “understand the importance” of bringing the bloc closer to the Middle East with such initiatives as the Mediterranean Pact that implements specific projects on a range of issues including health, education and energy in Middle Eastern countries.

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Attending the informal EU leaders’ summit later this week will be the leaders of Egypt, Lebanon Syria and Jordan, affording the opportunity “not just to exchange ideas but to see in action how we elevate our cooperation in a strategic level”, Christodoulides said.

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Lebanon is reportedly planing to ask for a month-long extension of the soon-expiring ceasefire with Israel at a fresh round of talks between the countries in Washington on Thursday.

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Israel said ahead of the negotiations that it had no “serious disagreements” with Lebanon, calling on it to “work together” against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which opposes the talks and is not taking part.

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The two countries’ direct talks on 14 April were their first in decades and the US soon after announced the 10-day truce, which is set to expire on Sunday.

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As in the last round, US secretary of state Marco Rubio will bring together Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad, in the presence of the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa.

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The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is now also expected to join the meeting, a state department official told AFP.

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An unnamed Lebanese official told the news agency that Lebanon would request a month-long extension of the truce, as well as “an end of Israel’s bombing and destruction in the areas where it is present, and a commitment to the ceasefire”.

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Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said on Wednesday that “contacts are underway to extend the ceasefire period”.

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Welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East.

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Iran has seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz a day after Donald Trump announced he was indefinitely calling off US attacks, while there is no sign of peace talks restarting.

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The status of a two-week-old ceasefire – due to expire earlier this week – remained unclear. In an about-face hours after threatening renewed violence, Trump made what appeared to be a unilateral announcement on Tuesday that the US would extend the ceasefire with Tehran until it had discussed an Iranian proposal in peace talks to end the two-month war.

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But Iranian officials did not say they had agreed to any extension of the truce, and criticised Trump’s decision to maintain the US navy blockade of Iranian ports. Lead Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said a full ceasefire only made sense if the blockade was lifted.

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two vessels on Wednesday for what it called maritime violations and escorted them to Iranian shores, according to the shipping companies and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency – the first time Iran has seized ships since the war began in late Februar.

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In other key developments:

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n
Trump was “satisfied” with the US naval blockade and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The US president had not set a deadline on Iran submitting a peace proposal, she said, after Trump on Tuesday said he was indefinitely extending the ceasefire at the request of mediator Pakistan until Tehran responded to the US’s negotiating positions or until talks were concluded “one way or the other”.

n
The Pentagon announced that the US secretary of the navy, John Phelan, would depart the office “effective immediately”, without providing an explanation for his sudden exit amid the naval blockade.

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The US-Israeli war against Iran is “starting to weaken Europe”, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told his German counterpart. Erdoğan said: “If we do not address this situation with an approach that prioritises peace, the damage caused by the conflict will be far greater.”

n
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed a Lebanese journalist, Amal Khalil, and wounded a photographer accompanying her, a senior Lebanese military official and Khalil’s employer said. The death of Khalil, 43, brought the death toll to five people on Wednesday – the deadliest day since a 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah was announced on 16 April. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Khalil’s death.

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journalist Amal Khalil of the daily Al-Akhbar newspaper reports near a destroyed bridge in Qasmiyeh, Lebanon, last month”,”caption”:”Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil of the daily Al-Akhbar newspaper reports near a destroyed bridge in Qasmiyeh, Lebanon, last month. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Mohammed Zaatari/AP”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

n
Khalil and freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj were covering developments near the town of al-Tayri when an Israeli strike hit the vehicle in front of them, Reuters reported. They ran into a nearby house that was then also targeted by an Israeli strike, said Lebanon’s health ministry. Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam said Israeli targeting of journalists and obstructing relief effort constituted war crimes.

n
Oil prices leapt 4% on Thursday after Iran vowed not to reopen the Hormuz strait amid the US naval blockade despite the truce extension. Around 0025 GMT, the benchmark US oil contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 4.06% to $96.73 a barrel, while the international oil benchmark Brent North Sea crude climbed 3.62% to $105.63. Both eased back minutes after.

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Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, were killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school amid mounting assaults on education in the territory, witnesses and local officials have said.

n
United Airlines implemented broad-based rises of 15-20% on fares as it sought to offset the surge in petrol prices while protecting profits, executives said. The big US carrier has also cut its 2026 flying capacity by 5%.

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Speaking to reporters earlier today, Donald Trump said that he would not use a nuclear weapon against Iran as the conflict continues without a clear end in sight.

“Why would I use a nuclear weapon where we’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it?”, he said on Thursday. “No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”

Trump posted a threat on social media earlier this month saying that a “whole civilization will die tonight,” referring to Iran, unless the country reached a deal to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

Trump also told reporters that Iran might have loaded up their weaponry “a little bit” during the two-week ceasefire. He said that the US military could “knock that out” in about one day.

When he was asked how long he was willing to wait for a long-term peace deal with Iran, he replied: “Don’t rush me”.

“Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone …maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus, but we’ll knock that out about one day, if they did,” Trump added.

“I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now … but I don’t want to do that. I want to have it everlasting,” Trump said.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, US president Donald Trump said the US has “hit about 75% of our targets” in Iran. He later said that number was 78% percent.

“We’ve hit about 75% of our targets,” he said on Thursday. “We stopped a little early because they want to have some peace, and we have a blockade that’s 100% effective, and they’re getting no business.”

“They’re not doing well economically, financially, they’re not doing any business because of the blockade,” Trump said.

He also said a deal has not been reached yet because “they’re in turmoil”.

“We have been speaking to them, but they don’t even know who is leading the country. They’re in turmoil. They’re in turmoil, so we thought we’d give them a little chance to get some of their turmoil resolved,” Trump said.

“I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks,” he said. “Now what we’re doing is sitting back and seeing what deal, and if they don’t want to make a deal, then I’ll finish it up militarily with the other 25% of the targets. We’ve hit 78% of the targets that we’ve wanted to hit.”

Patrick Wintour

Analysis: Trump may talk of regime infighting, but Iran seems united by strategy born of war

Donald Trump has claimed that the infighting between moderates and hardliners in Iran’s leadership is so intense that the country has “no idea who their leader is”, but many Iranian experts questioned his analysis, saying that – given the mass assassinations of senior commanders – the country has shown remarkable institutional cohesion.

Trump’s allegations of “CRAZY” splits in the Iranian leadership – the second outing for this argument in three days – is remarkable since he has previously said either he has little knowledge of the new Iranian leadership or that there has already been regime change.

But Trump’s team, either through Pakistani mediators or more direct contacts, may be picking up that different factions are demanding different preconditions for the talks to restart. Trump at a minimum is implying that military hardliners have taken charge from the civilian diplomatic leadership.

It is hardly a secret that Iran has been riven for decades over how to approach the US and the wisdom of negotiations, but some Iranian academics and observers are accusing Trump of cognitive warfare: attempting to create what Mohamed Amersi, a member of the Global Advisory Council at the Wilson Centre, described as “chronic systemic paralysis in which the country’s decision making machine becomes deadlocked”.

You can read the full analysis here:

UK prepared to deploy RAF Typhoons to keep strait of Hormuz open after Iran war

Dan Sabbagh

The Typhoon proposal was at the heart of the offer made by British military planners during a 30-country two-day meeting held at the UK’s Northwood headquarters and organised jointly with France.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said that there are no “hardliners” or “moderates” in Iran, responding to US president’s Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social claiming that there is internal division within Iran’s leadership.

“We are all Iranians and revolutionaries,” Pezeshkian wrote in a post on social media. “With ironclad unity of nation and state and obedience to the Supreme Leader, we will make the aggressor regret.”

Separately, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said in a post on social media that Iran’s state institutions “continue to act with unity, purpose, and discipline”.

“The battlefield and diplomacy are fully coordinated fronts in the same war. Iranians are all united, more than ever before,” Araghchi said.

In a post on Truth Social, US president Donald Trump said he is “possibly the least pressured person ever” to end the war in Iran.

“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!,” he wrote.

“A Deal will only be made when it’s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our Allies and, in fact, the rest of the World,” Trump added.

Trump to meet Lebanon, Israel envoys at White House talks

US President Donald Trump is slated to meet Israeli and Lebanese envoys when they hold a second round of peace talks on Thursday, a US official said.

“The ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon will now take place at the White House,” the official said. “President Trump will greet both representatives upon their arrival.”

Pope Leo XIV urged the United States and Iran to return to talks to end the war Thursday and condemned capital punishment, calling for a new “culture of peace” to replace the recourse to violence.

“As a pastor I cannot be in favor of war,” he told reporters in a press conference on his way home from his trip to Africa. “I would like to encourage everyone to find responses that come from a culture of peace and not hatred and division.”

Pope Leo XIV meets with journalists aboard the papal flight from Malabo to Rome, Thursday, 23 April 2026, at the end of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Pool) Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

The pope said that he carries with him a photograph of a Muslim Lebanese boy who had been killed in Israel’s recent war with Hezbollah. The photo shows the boy holding a sign welcoming the pope when he visited Lebanon last year.

“As a pastor I cannot be in favor of war,” he said. “I would like to encourage everyone to find responses that come from a culture of peace and not hatred and division.”

In regards to Iran’s recent executions, the pope said he condemns “the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment. I believe human life is to be respected and that all people from conception to natural (death), their lives should be respected and protected.”

“So when a regime, when a country takes decisions which take away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned,” he said.

According to several Israeli news sources, Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has resigned from leading negotiations with the United States.

This is a developing story.

US Central Command said on Thursday that 33 vessels have been ordered to turn around or return to port as part of its blockade on ships leaving from or heading to Iran.

That adds two more vessels since its last update on Wednesday night.

The White House press secretary said on Wednesday that US president Donald Trump was “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”.

However, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and lead negotiator, said that the reopening the strait of Hormuz would be “impossible” while the US and Israel committed “flagrant” breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade, “the hostage-taking of the world’s economy” and “Zionist warmongering”.

Lebanon’s foreign minister Yousseff Raggi said in a post on social media that there is “no shame in negotiating with Israel if the goal is to end the war, recover territory, and secure a lasting peace.”

“Lebanon can no longer endure wars fought on its soil on behalf of others, nor can Hezbollah continue to sell the illusion of victory,” he wrote.

The day so far

US president Donald Trump said he has ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill any boat” that is laying mines in the strait of Hormuz. He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.
Israel is awaiting the green light from the US to “return Iran to the Stone Age”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Thursday. “Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran. The IDF is ready in defense and offense, and the targets are marked,” Katz said.
An American-Kuwaiti journalist held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war has been cleared of all charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to the New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on 3 March for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.
Italian UN peacekeepers have replaced the statue of Jesus Christ vandalised by Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday. The sculpture of a crucified Jesus was located in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel.
The United Nations said Thursday it was “working on” maintaining a presence in Lebanon once the mandate for its Unifil peacekeeping force expires at the end of the year, AFP reported. “In terms of the post-Unifil, we’re currently in the process of working on these options,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, with the Lebanese government “very clear that they would want to keep a UN presence”.
An Israeli drone strike killed three men inside a car Thursday in central Gaza Strip, health officials said. Those killed were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said. In a short statement, the ministry announced that “15-year-old Youssef Sameh Shtayyeh was killed by the [Israeli] occupation’s gunfire in Nablus”, in the north of the West Bank.
The US military stopped and boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian ocean which the Pentagon said was carrying oil from Iran, in the second such action this week. The US defence department said its forces carried out “a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding” of the M/T Majestic X overnight.
Italy is ready to deploy up to four vessels, including two minesweepers, to the strait of Hormuz to clear it of mines, the Italian navy’s chief of staff, Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, said. Speaking to Italy’s Rai network, Bergotto said the mission is being planned with the UK, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The son of the former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979, accused Europe of standing by and allowing the Tehran government to continue the bloody repression of protests that killed thousands at the end of last year.
The deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, Hamid Reza Haji Babaei, said Iran has received its first revenue from tolls levied on ships in the strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The fees have been deposited into the central bank of Iran, the news agency reported, without disclosing the amount.
Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said the world is facing “the biggest energy security threat in history”. In an interview with CNBC, Birol cited the loss of around 13 million barrels per day of oil supply due to the Iran war and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the latest attack despite a 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a statement, the ministry said that “an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district”, more than 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Israel, killed three people while a strike on the village of Yater wounded two people, including a child.

The attacks come hours ahead of the second meeting between Lebanon and Israel’s US ambassadors in Washington, where Beirut is expected to ask for a ceasefire extension.

Middle East crisis live: Trump orders navy to attack any boats laying mines in strait of Hormuz

Trump claims US controls strait of Hormuz and Iran ‘doesn’t know who its leader is’

UK prepared to deploy RAF Typhoons to keep strait of Hormuz open after Iran war

Trump to meet Lebanon, Israel envoys at White House talks

The day so far

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