Iran fires on 3 ships in the Strait of Hormuz, complicating efforts to
resume US-Iran talks
[April 22, 2026]
By JON GAMBRELL and DAVID RISING
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran fired on three ships in the
Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, underscoring the ongoing threat to global
energy supplies and complicating efforts to bring the United States and
Iran together for talks to end the war.
The attacks, which Iranian media said were carried out by Iran’s
paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came after President Donald Trump said
the U.S. would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, due to
expire on Wednesday.
But Trump said the U.S. would continue to blockade Iranian ports, and
the attacks reinforced the dangers to traffic in the strait, through
which 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas pass in peacetime.
That means that even if the ceasefire largely holds — and Iran and the
U.S. do not resume major attacks — the war will continue to weigh
heavily on the global economy. Already the conflict has sent gas prices
skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a
wide array of other products. The longer the strait remains closed, the
more severe and widespread the effects will be — and the longer it will
take the economy to bounce back.
Iran has offered no formal acknowledgment of Trump's extension, but an
Iranian diplomat said talks would not resume until the blockade is
lifted.
Three ships come under attack in the Strait of Hormuz
Iran opened fire on a container ship in the strait on Wednesday morning,
and a second was attacked a short time later, according to the British
military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.
Iranian state television reported later reported that the ships were in
the Revolutionary Guard's custody and being taken to Iran. It identified
the vessels as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminodes. The ship’s owners
could not be immediately reached for comment.
The seizures represent an escalation by Iran’s leaders, who appear
poised to drive a harder bargain with American negotiators after two
other rounds of talks with the Trump administration ended in open
warfare.
The semiofficial Nour News, Fars and Mehr news agencies then reported
the Guard attacked a third vessel called the Euphoria. They said the
vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating.
The UKMTO said the first ship was attacked by a Revolutionary Guard
gunboat that did not hail the ship before firing. It added that nobody
was hurt in the attack.
Iran’s Nour News, however, reported that the Guard only opened fire on
the ship after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed
forces.” Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency described the attack as
Iran “lawfully enforcing" its control over the Strait of Hormuz.
There have been more than 30 attacks on ships in the Mideast since the
war began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
It's not clear when talks will restart
Iran’s ability to restrict traffic through the strait — which leads from
the Persian Gulf to the open ocean — has proved a major strategic
advantage.
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Tankers and bulk carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz,
Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo)
While the ceasefire means that American and Israeli airstrikes have
stopped in Iran — and Tehran’s missiles no longer target Israel and
the wider Middle East — the attacks in the strait and earlier
American interdictions of Iranian ships show the maritime threat
remains.
Without 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.
On Wednesday, Brent crude oil, the international standard, was
trading higher than $98 a barrel, up 35% since the war started.
Iran appeared to dig in Wednesday, with its Revolutionary Guard
vowing to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to
its remaining assets in the region.”
The night before, hard-line supporters of Iran’s theocracy held
rallies in which the Guard showed off missiles and launchers — a
sign of defiance to Israel and the U.S., which devoted much of their
airstrike campaign to destroying the county’s ballistic missile
arsenal.
It’s not clear when talks might restart. Two 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.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to talk to the media. Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of
the Iranian mission in Egypt, told The Associated Press that no
delegation would go to Pakistan until the U.S. lifts its blockade.
One killed in drone attack in Lebanon
In Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed
Hezbollah broke out after the U.S. and Israel launched their initial
strikes, the state-run National News Agency said a morning Israeli
drone strike on the village of Jabbour killed one and wounded two
others.
Israel’s military denied that it had attacked the area.
A 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.
Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in
Iran, according to authorities. More than 2,290 people has been
killed in Lebanon, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a
dozen have died in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in
Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been
killed.
___
Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Munir Ahmed in
Islamabad contributed to this report.
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