U.S. Attacks Iranian Cargo Ship While Preparing for New Round of Talks

 

U.S. Attacks Iranian Cargo Ship While Preparing for New Round of Talks

President Trump said a Navy destroyer had attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged vessel in the Gulf of Oman. The White House said it is dispatching a high-level delegation, including Vice President JD Vance, to Pakistan for negotiations.

 

Published April 19, 2026

Updated April 20, 2026, 1:15 a.m. ET

Tyler Pager Shirin Hakim and Sanam Mahoozi

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/19/world/iran-us-war-trump-hormuz

 

Here’s the latest.

A U.S. Navy destroyer on Sunday attacked and seized an Iranian cargo ship that defied an American blockade of Iran’s ports, President Trump said, posing a fresh threat to the fragile cease-fire that is set to expire this week.

 

Mr. Trump announced the attack hours after a White House official said the U.S. was dispatching a high-level delegation including Vice President JD Vance to peace talks in Pakistan, even as Iranian state media said Tehran had not yet agreed to a meeting.

 

The guided missile destroyer USS Spruance fired on the cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman, Mr. Trump said on Truth Social, “blowing a hole” in its engine room before Marines took possession of the vessel. The president said the ship was under U.S. sanctions because of a “history of illegal activity” and that U.S. forces were “seeing what’s on board!”

 

Mr. Trump did not say whether there had been any casualties. Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that U.S. forces had fired on an Iranian merchant vessel, but said naval units from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had forced the Americans to retreat.

 

The attack occurred in the Gulf of Oman, south of the Strait of Hormuz, the economically vital waterway that has become a flashpoint in negotiations. Iran imposed a blockade on the channel itself, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil normally travels, and the U.S. countered by blocking traffic to Iranian ports. On Saturday, Iran attacked two Indian vessels attempting a transit, acts Mr. Trump described earlier Sunday as a “total violation of our cease-fire.”

 

The fate of the strait is top of mind for American negotiators who Mr. Trump said would travel to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, this week for talks. The stakes for the negotiations, should they happen, are high: failure would risk reigniting the fighting and extending the global economic upheaval wrought by the war.

 

A White House official said Mr. Vance was expected to lead a U.S. delegation, accompanied by the top Trump aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The negotiations would be the second meeting of high-level officials since the cease-fire went into effect on April 8.

 

The cease-fire is expected to expire on April 22 and the rhetoric is intensifying as the deadline approaches. Mr. Trump on Sunday renewed threats against Iran’s civilian infrastructure if the strait is not reopened and an extension of the cease-fire is not reached.

 

“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.”

 

The last round of negotiations, led last weekend by Mr. Vance in Islamabad, ended without a breakthrough. The meeting had been the highest-level encounter between Iranian and American leaders in decades.

 

Here’s what else we are covering:

 

Pakistan: Pakistan appeared to be readying for a fresh round of talks between the U.S. and Iran, an indication that the talks were likely to go forward even as the two sides sent conflicting public messages. Islamabad, the capital, went on a security lockdown on Sunday night and officials said they would deploy 10,000 extra security forces in the city.

 

Lebanon: Thousands of displaced Lebanese families were making their way back home to Lebanon’s south on Sunday soon after a 10-day cease-fire went into effect. The head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said this weekend that the group was willing to cooperate with the Lebanese authorities to end the war with Israel and laid out a series of conditions for a lasting truce.

 

Energy Prices: Secretary of Energy Chris Wright acknowledged on Sunday that gasoline prices in the United States had probably peaked but could remain elevated for months, undermining Mr. Trump’s earlier claim that high fuel prices resulting from the war in Iran would be “short-term.”