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Middle East crisis live: White House says Trump ‘satisfied’ with blockade after Iran says it seized two ships in strait of Hormuz | US-Israel war on Iran
Trump ‘satisfied’ with naval blockade, White House says
Donald Trump is “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position” – according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
She highlights that reports of a three-to-five-day deadline for the extended ceasefire are “not true”. “The cards are in President Trump’s hands right now,” she told the media during a press conference in Washington.
When asked how long the war will continue for, she said that is up to the president, who will “do so when he feels it’s in the best interests of the United States and the American people”.
She also told reporters that the US is inflicting serious economic pain on Iran. “We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade, they’re losing $500m a day. Kharg Island is completely full, they can’t move oil in and out. They can’t even pay their own people as a result of this economic leverage that President Trump has inflicted over them,” said Leavitt.
Key events
US forces have so far directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the blockade against Iran, according to the latest update by the US Central Command.
Amid reports that ships were getting through the blockade, CENTCOM denied the breach in a post on X.
“Over past 24 hours, media reports have alleged that several commercial ships evaded the blockade, citing M/V Hero II, M/V Hedy, and M/V Dorena as examples. These reports are inaccurate,” CENTCOM wrote on Wednesday.
CENTCOM said two tankers – Hero II and Hedy – are anchored in Iran after US forces intercepted them earlier this week. Another tanker “has been under the escort of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after previously attempting to violate the blockade.”
Trump ‘satisfied’ with naval blockade, White House says
Donald Trump is “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position” – according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
She highlights that reports of a three-to-five-day deadline for the extended ceasefire are “not true”. “The cards are in President Trump’s hands right now,” she told the media during a press conference in Washington.
When asked how long the war will continue for, she said that is up to the president, who will “do so when he feels it’s in the best interests of the United States and the American people”.
She also told reporters that the US is inflicting serious economic pain on Iran. “We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade, they’re losing $500m a day. Kharg Island is completely full, they can’t move oil in and out. They can’t even pay their own people as a result of this economic leverage that President Trump has inflicted over them,” said Leavitt.
The US embassy in Beirut has urged citizens to leave Lebanon amid ongoing, escalating security concerns.
According to Al Jazeera, the embassy has renewed a security alert, urging US citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options were still available.
In a statement, it said the security situation “remains complex and can change quickly”.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in an interview with Fox News that Iran must agree to turn over its enriched uranium to the United States as part of negotiations to end the war.
Leavitt is now taking questions from the press outside the White House.
Speaking about Iran’s seizure of two container ships, she said that Donald Trump does not consider their capture to be a ceasefire violation because the vessels are not American or Israeli.
“No, because these were not US ships, these were not Israeli ships. These were two international vessels,” she said.
The ships identified as the Epaminondas and MSC Francesca were transferred to Iran’s coast, with the IRGC warning that “disrupting order and safety in the strait of Hormuz is considered a red line”.
Lebanese state media reported that Israeli strikes killed at least four people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Hezbollah launched, according to the report, a drone attack against Israeli forces in the region, which further jeopardizes the US-brokered ceasefire.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli strike hit a car in Tayri, a village in south Lebanon, killing two people inside.
An Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Yohmor killed another two people, the NNA and Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Iran’s president said the country has “welcomed dialogue and agreement” but criticized truce breaches and the US blockade, calling them the “main obstacles to genuine negotiations”.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has welcomed dialogue and agreement and continues to do so,” Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X. “Breach of commitments, blockade and threats are main obstacles to genuine negotiations. World sees your endless hypocritical rhetoric and contradiction between claims and actions.”
Israeli settlers attacked a school in the occupied West Bank, killing two people, including a teenage student, AFP reports.
Aws Hamdi al-Naasan, 14, and Jihad Marzouq Abu Naim, 32, were killed by gunfire on Tuesday in the village of Al-Mughayyir.
“The students were taking their monthly exams. Suddenly, we were shocked to see settlers advancing towards the school and attacking it,” principal Bassam Abu Assaf told AFP, as mourners gathered at the funeral.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) posted a plea calling for international pressure on the Israeli army to allow the rescue of journalist Amal Khalil.
RSF said on Wednesday that Khalil, a reporter for Al-Akhbar, is trapped near the southern Lebanese village of al-Tiri following an Israeli airstrike that struck near her vehicle.
“Her life is in danger right now! Continued Israeli airstrikes are preventing rescuers from reaching her,” reads the post from RSF.
Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, called on the Lebanese Red Cross to work on the rescue of Khalil, along with another journalist, Zeinab Faraj, who was with her.
The management company of a container ship that was fired upon in the strait of Hormuz on Wednesday says the Liberian-registered Epaminondas was “approached and fired upon by a manned gunboat” while transiting the strait about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Oman, the Associated Press reports.
The Technomar company said all crew were “safe and accounted for” and no injuries were reported, but that preliminary inspections indicated the ship’s bridge had been damaged.
“Technomar remains in close contact with the crew and relevant authorities. Our priority remains the safety and well-being of our crew as we work with all relevant stakeholders to ensure their continued safety and investigate the incident,” the company said.
Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said “reopening the Strait of Hormuz is impossible” if the ceasefire continues to be breached.
“A complete ceasefire only makes sense if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world’s economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
“They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation,” he added.
The day so far
US president Donald Trump has not set a timeline for the extension of a ceasefire with Iran, a source briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. Trump unilaterally announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday amid frantic efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.
A second round of US-Iran talks could take place within the next three days, the New York Post reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Pakistani sources and president Donald Trump. “It’s possible!” Trump reportedly told the Post by text message, when asked about sources in Pakistan – which mediated the first round of talks – saying that a second round was “expected in Islamabad within the next 36 to 72 hours.”
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, said a second French peacekeeper who was “seriously wounded by Hezbollah fighters” in Lebanon has died of his injuries. Anicet Girardin was wounded in the attack on Saturday which killed another French peacekeeper, identified as Florian Montorio.
Two people have been killed after an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in Tyre in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA). NNA said its correspondent also reported Israeli forces carried out “a violent bombing” in the southern Lebanese town of Qantara.
The United States must end its blockade on Iran as a prerequisite for any further ceasefire talks in Islamabad, an Iranian diplomat said Wednesday. Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian mission in Egypt, told the Associated Press that communications with Pakistani mediators are underway “to implement Iran’s conditions.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian media. The ships identified as the Epaminondas and MSC Francesca were transferred to Iran’s coast, with the IRGC warning that “disrupting order and safety in the strait of Hormuz is considered a red line”.
It came after reports of two ships and a third vessel coming under attack in the strategic waterway this morning, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) and the BBC. Iranian media named the third ship as the Euphoria, which is said to be “stranded off the coast of Iran”.
Donald Trump said he is extending the ceasefire with Iran at Pakistan’s request while awaiting a “unified proposal” from Tehran, even as the US military maintains its blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran’s foreign ministry has said that it “appreciates” Pakistan’s efforts to end the war. Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that Iran appreciates Pakistan’s efforts and initiatives to establish peace in the region.
Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, acknowledged the ceasefire extension in comments reported by Iranian media, but did not specifically say Tehran was ready to attend a new round of talks with the US in Islamabad.
Lebanon will request a one-month truce extension when Lebanese and Israeli envoys meet for the second time in two weeks in Washington tomorrow, according to reports. The 10-day ceasefire is set to expire on Sunday.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, has urged Lebanon to make joint efforts with his country to counter Hezbollah. “I call on the government of Lebanon – let’s work together against the terror state that Hezbollah built in your territory,” he said.
China said after the announcement of an extension of the ceasefire that it is “imperative” to keep the conflict from reigniting. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Wednesday that the current situation in the Middle East is at “a critical stage.”
Iran’s foreign ministry has said that it “appreciates” Pakistan’s efforts to end the war.
Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that Iran appreciates Pakistan’s efforts and initiatives to establish peace in the region.
“We affirm Iran’s readiness to defend itself and confront any aggression or threat,” he said.
Donald Trump has indefinitely extended the US ceasefire with Iran after talks looked increasingly uncertain between both sides.
Trump said he would “extend the ceasefire until such time as [Iran’s] proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other”.
The US blockade remains, as does the closure of the strait of Hormuz by Iran, which seized two ships on Wednesday.
Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour…
Trump has not set a timeline for extension of Iran ceasefire, source says
US president Donald Trump has not set a timeline for the extension of a ceasefire with Iran, a source briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
Trump unilaterally announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday amid frantic efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.
Hours after announcing that he “expected to be bombing”, the US president said he would extend the ceasefire until Iranian negotiators submitted a proposal for peace.
The IRGC has named the two ships seized as the MSC-Francesca and the Epaminondas, Iranian broadcaster IRIB said on Telegram.
It alleged the Francesca was linked to Israel while the Epaminodes lacked “the necessary permits” and had been “tampering with navigation systems”.
Ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic showed the two vessels – both container ships – stopped near the Iranian coast on Wednesday.
Here is an image of the Epaminodes, in Naples last year:
US-Iran talks could be held in next three days – Trump
A second round of US-Iran talks could take place within the next three days, the New York Post reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Pakistani sources and president Donald Trump.
“It’s possible!” Trump reportedly told the Post by text message, when asked about sources in Pakistan – which mediated the first round of talks – saying that a second round was “expected in Islamabad within the next 36 to 72 hours.”
Trump on Tuesday extended a two-week truce in the war just as it was about to expire. A digital news outlet in Pakistan, News Post, reported the three-day time frame for more talks without a source or further details.
Second French peacekeeper dies after southern Lebanon attack blamed on Hezbollah
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, said a second French peacekeeper who was “seriously wounded by Hezbollah fighters” in Lebanon has died of his injuries.
Anicet Girardin was wounded in the attack on Saturday which killed another French peacekeeper, identified as Florian Montorio.
In a post on X, Macron said: “Corporal Anicet Girardin of the 132nd Cynotechnical Infantry Regiment of Suippes, repatriated yesterday from Lebanon where he had been seriously wounded by Hezbollah fighters, died this morning from his injuries.
“He died for France.”
The French soldiers were killed when a patrol came under attack from “non-state actors”, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said.
Two people killed by Israeli strike in southern Lebanon – report
Two people have been killed after an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in Tyre in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).
NNA said its correspondent also reported Israeli forces carried out “a violent bombing” in the southern Lebanese town of Qantara.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports.
