Iran War Live Updates: Reported Seizure of Ships Injects New Uncertainty Over Peace Talks

 

Iran War Live Updates: Reported Seizure of Ships Injects New Uncertainty Over Peace Talks

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had seized two ships near the Strait of Hormuz. A Trump spokeswoman said the president did not view those actions as violating the cease-fire.

 

Lynsey ChutelLeo SandsChris Cameron and Max Bearak

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/22/world/iran-war-trump-ceasefire-talks

 

Here’s the latest.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran said it had seized two cargo ships on Wednesday near the contested Strait of Hormuz, Iranian news media reported, adding uncertainty to a cease-fire President Trump extended on Tuesday hours before it would have expired.

 

The reported seizures, which came after the U.S. Navy denied dozens of ships access to Iranian ports, made clear that despite the efforts to turn the pause in direct hostilities into a lasting peace, neither Iran nor the United States is shying away from trying to exert control over the waterway.

 

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, played down the reported ship seizures, telling Fox News that Mr. Trump did not view them as a violation of the cease-fire as efforts to revive peace talks continued. “These were not U.S. ships,” she said. “These were not Israeli ships.”

 

Iranian news media reported that the Guards had targeted the two cargo vessels, the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas, a Greek-owned ship, because they did not abide by Iran’s recently imposed rules for passing through the strait. Those rules include securing permits for preapproved routes.

 

MSC, a global shipping company based in Geneva, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Greece’s foreign minister said that the Greek-owned ship had sustained “extremely wide damage.” Tracking data suggested that both ships were now anchored around eight miles off the Iranian coast.

 

Several Iranian news media outlets reported earlier that the Guards had fired on a third cargo ship, the Euphoria. Tracking data showed that vessel stopping multiple times and changing directions abruptly as it passed through the strait.

 

With no clear indication that either Washington or Tehran was willing to back down from its public stances on the strait and other issues, there appeared to be an impasse over the conditions that need to be met before a new round of peace talks.

 

Here’s what else we are covering:

 

War powers vote: For a fifth time since the war began on Feb. 28, Senate Republicans voted on Wednesday to block a resolution to enforce Congress’ war powers, with Democrats failing once again in their effort to constrain Mr. Trump. A decades-old law allows the president to wage war without congressional approval for 60 days; that window would expire on May 1.

 

Iran border crossing: After entering Turkey, Iranians belonging to different political persuasions and from parts of the country told The Times that they were fleeing a deepening economic crisis at home.

 

Navy secretary out: John Phelan was fired after months of Pentagon infighting over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program.

 

Lebanon: An exchange of attacks along the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday put pressure on the countries’ already tenuous truce.