Updated ,first published
US President Donald Trump said he had ordered the navy to “shoot and kill” any ship laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized two ships and tightened its control over the strategic waterway during an indefinite ceasefire with no sign of restarting peace talks.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any ship, no matter how small (their warships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that are laying mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday. “There is no need to hesitate. Furthermore, our ‘mine sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now. I hereby order that that activity continue, but at a tripled level!”
In a separate post, Trump claimed that the United States had “full control over the Strait of Hormuz” and that no ships could enter or leave without navy approval.
“It is ‘hermetically sealed’ until such time as Iran can reach a DEAL!!!” said.
The status of the two-week ceasefire, which is set to expire early this week, remains unclear. In a sharp change of course hours after threatening to resume violence, Trump made what appeared to be a unilateral announcement that the United States would extend the truce until it had discussed an Iranian proposal in peace talks to end the two-month war.
But Iranian officials did not say they had agreed to any extension of the ceasefire and criticized Trump’s decision to maintain the US blockade of Iran’s ports, seen by Tehran as an act of war.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said a full ceasefire only made sense if the blockade was lifted.
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade passed before the war, was impossible with such a “flagrant violation of the ceasefire,” Ghalibaf said on social media.
“They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, and they will not achieve them through intimidation,” he wrote in his first response to Trump’s announcement. “The only way is to recognize the rights of the Iranian people.”
Trump again backed down at the last minute from his repeated threats to bomb Iran’s power plants and other civilian infrastructure, which the United Nations and others warned would violate international humanitarian law.
But little progress has been made toward ending the war that began with joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. That leaves both sides in a holding pattern, with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, putting pressure on economies around the world.
Iranian state television reported that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had seized two ships, identified as MSC Francesca and Epaminondas, after three ships were attacked in the strait on Wednesday. The two ships were reportedly being taken to Iran for “inspection of their cargo, documents and records.”
The third ship, a Liberian-flagged container ship, was attacked in the same area but was not damaged and resumed sailing, according to maritime security sources.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that since the ships were neither American nor Israeli, the seizure did not constitute a violation of the ceasefire. He called it an act of “piracy.”
Traffic through the strait was halted following the seizures. Only one ship, the bulk carrier LB Energy, was seen moving through the waterway early Thursday, and none were observed entering. The tanker Ocean Jewel is currently idle at the entrance to the corridor, having aborted a transit shortly after Iranian forces began shooting at three ships.
The US military said on Wednesday it had so far ordered more than 30 ships to turn around or return to port as part of its blockade against Iran. Far beyond the Gulf, the United States has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged oil tankers in Asian waters, the sources said, diverting them from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Brent, the international crude oil benchmark, remained above $100 a barrel in Asian trading on Thursday, after hitting triple figures a day earlier for the first time in two weeks.
No new deadline
In his announcement Tuesday, Trump said he had agreed to a request from Pakistani mediators “to suspend our attack on the country of Iran until its leaders and representatives can present a unified proposal… and the discussions are concluded, one way or another.”
He has not set any deadline for the proposal or discussions, Leavitt told reporters.
Pakistan, which has acted as a mediator, was still trying to bring the sides together after both failed to show up for talks tentatively scheduled in Islamabad on Tuesday before the two-week ceasefire expired.
A first session of peace talks between Iran and the United States in Islamabad 11 days ago produced no agreement.
Trump wants Iran to give up highly enriched uranium and give up further enrichment to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon. Iran says it has only a peaceful civilian nuclear program and wants sanctions lifted, reparations for damage and recognition of its control over the strait.
Iran has also imposed a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as a condition for truce talks. On Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon killed at least five people, including Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, in the deadliest day since a 10-day ceasefire was announced on April 16.
Ahead of new talks in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors on Thursday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Beirut would seek an extension of the ceasefire, which is set to expire on Sunday.
