Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized two of them on Wednesday, intensifying its assault on shipping in the key waterway a day after US President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.
\nIranian media reported that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was bringing two ships to Iran after seizing them in the strait, through which 20% of the world\u2019s oil passes in peacetime.
\nThe standoff over Iran\u2019s closure of the strait and the US blockade raised doubts about when or if talks would resume to end the crisis.
\nThe White House stated that the seizures did not violate ceasefire terms, but the latest salvos complicate efforts to bring the US and Iran together for talks to end the war.
\nThe conflict has already sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products.
\nThe longer the strait remains closed, the more severe and widespread the effects will be \u2014 and the longer it will take the economy to bounce back.
\nThe European Union energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, warned of lasting impact for consumers and businesses, likening the crisis to other major energy crunches over the last half-century.
\nHe stated that the war is costing Europe around 500 million euros (\u00a3534 million) each day.
\nIn a separate development, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that a French peacekeeper wounded in an attack in Lebanon over the weekend had died of his wounds.
\nAnother French peacekeeper was killed in the attack on Saturday, in which the force came under small arms fire in southern Lebanon.
\nMr. Macron blamed the attack on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
\nHezbollah has denied involvement.
\nIran\u2019s leaders appear poised to drive a hard bargain with American negotiators after Mr. Trump said the US would indefinitely extend the ceasefire that had been due to expire on Wednesday, while Washington awaits a new proposal from Tehran.
\nIranian media reported that the MSC Francesca and the Epaminodes were being escorted to Iran.
\nThe ships\u2019 owners could not be immediately reached for comment.
\nThe US had earlier seized two Iranian vessels as the ceasefire talks were due to take place in Pakistan.
\nThe Guard attacked a third ship, identified as the Euphoria, which had become \u201cstranded\u201d on the Iranian coast, Iranian media reported, without elaborating.
\nThe British military\u2019s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre also reported the attacks, stating that a Revolutionary Guard gunboat opened fire on a container ship and \u201ccaused heavy damage to the bridge.\u201d
\nA second cargo ship came under fire hours later, with no report of damage, though the vessel was then stopped in the water.
\nNo injuries to the crew of either vessel were reported.
\nThere have been more than 30 attacks on ships in the Middle East since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28 with a surprise attack on Iran.
\nBefore then, the strait was open for all traffic.
\nIran\u2019s ability to restrict traffic through the strait \u2014 which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean \u2014 has proved a major strategic advantage.
\nWhile the ceasefire means that American and Israeli airstrikes have stopped in Iran \u2014 and Tehran\u2019s missiles no longer target Israel and the wider Middle East \u2014 the attacks in the strait and earlier American interdictions of Iranian ships show the maritime threat remains.
\nWithout any diplomatic agreement, those attacks may continue, likely deterring more ships from even attempting to pass through the strait, and further squeeze global energy supplies.
\nOn Wednesday, Brent crude oil, the international standard, was trading higher than 100 dollars a barrel, up 35% since the war started.
\nIran appeared to dig in on Wednesday, with its Revolutionary Guard vowing to \u201cdeliver crushing blows beyond the enemy\u2019s imagination to its remaining assets in the region.\u201d
\nThe night before, hard-line supporters of Iran\u2019s theocracy held rallies in which the Guard showed off missiles and launchers \u2014 a sign of defiance to Israel and the US, which devoted much of their airstrike campaign to destroying the country\u2019s ballistic missile arsenal.
\nIt is not clear when talks might restart.
\nTwo Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that Islamabad is still waiting to hear from Tehran on when it will send a delegation for another round.
\nThey spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
\nMojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian mission in Egypt, told The Associated Press that no delegation would go to Pakistan until the US lifts its blockade.
\nIn Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah broke out after the US and Israel launched their initial strikes, the state-run National News Agency reported that a morning Israeli drone strike on the village of Jabbour killed one and wounded two others.
\nIsrael\u2019s military denied that it had attacked the area.
\nA 10-day ceasefire went into effect in Lebanon on Friday, but there have been several Israeli strikes and Hezbollah claimed its first attack on Tuesday.
\nSince the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to authorities.
\nMore than 2,290 people have been killed in Lebanon, 23 people have died in Israel, and more than a dozen have died in Gulf Arab states.
\nFifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have been killed.
\nLater on Wednesday, the Pentagon announced that the US Navy\u2019s top civilian official, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, is leaving his job.
\nIn a statement posted to social media, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Mr. Phelan was \u201cdeparting the administration, effective immediately.\u201d
\nNavy Undersecretary Hung Cao will become acting secretary of the navy.
\n#StraitOfHormuz #IranUSConflict #MiddleEastTensions #OilPrices #MaritimeSecurity #IranRevolutionaryGuard #Geopolitics #CeasefireTalks #GlobalEnergy #Hezbollah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and seized two of them on Wednesday, intensifying its assault on shipping in the key waterway a day after US President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports. Iranian media reported that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was bringing two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}