Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two foreign ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to a semi-official state news agency, a major escalation coming just hours after President Donald Trump announced he was extending a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
The state-linked Tasnim News Agency said that the captured vessels were “operating without authorization, repeatedly violating regulations, and manipulating navigation aid systems in a way that endangered maritime safety.”
The vessels are now in Iranian territorial waters, Tasnim reported.
The seizures underscore how the status of the Strait of Hormuz may yet dictate peace talks.
The critical shipping lane — through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil travels — saw traffic slow to a trickle in the weeks after Iran effectively shut down the passageway following U.S and Israeli attacks in February.
The White House responded by blockading Iranian shipping on the strait. And an agreement to reopen the waterway collapsed last week after the president kept the blockade in place.
Trump announced Tuesday that he was indefinitely extending the ceasefire, which was set to expire Wednesday. But he again said the U.S. blockade over the strait would remain. Iran has signaled it won’t send its negotiating team to continue talks with the U.S. in Pakistan until the blockade is lifted.
“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the seizures.
