Iran war live: Tehran says no date set for US talks, Hormuz Strait closed

US Central Command says there are more than 12 warships involved in the US blockade of Iranian ports.

They say there are more than 10,000 airmen, Marines and soldiers, as well as lots of aircraft flying overhead.

They’ve been pretty productive on their social media channels, putting out videos and photos and getting the word out about their blockade. And they say they’ve already turned back 23 ships that are either Iranian or linked to Iran and sent them back through the Strait of Hormuz.

There have also been media reports that this blockade might widen.

Remember that the US blockade is only on ships that they say are going from Iranian ports or are linked to Iran. But there have been reports that they might now seek to widen it to Iranian-linked ships that are elsewhere in the world.

This is something that the US has done before with Venezuela, and it managed to board and interdict vessels that it thought were carrying Venezuelan oil and that were under sanctions in other oceans. There’s a video of one such interdiction in the Indian Ocean.

What that involves is specialised units of Marines or Navy Seals boarding that ship, often from helicopters, and then, occasionally, even driving that vessel to a port that they want to take it to. So it’s a complicated operation that includes different branches of the US government.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, has said that talks with the US cannot happen until the two sides agree on a shared “framework”.

He stressed that the two sides have not reached a point where they can meet because of issues on which Washington has taken a “maximalist” position.

Watch below:

Turkiye wants to extend a natural gas supply contract with Iran, which is due to expire in the coming months, but the talks have not yet begun because of the war, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Bayraktar said Ankara remains interested in securing Iranian gas to ensure supply continuity.

“There’s no negotiation right now, but we might sit and discuss a potential extension,” Bayraktar told reporters.

The AFP quoted Bayraktar as saying that Turkiye faces no short- or medium-term supply risks, despite the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The minister added that the developments involving the key waterway once again highlight the importance of energy diversification.

A ceasefire may be in place, but in the Strait of Hormuz, the confrontation continues.

There, Iran and the US are still engaging directly, not through their strikes, but through control, pressure, and daily encounters at sea. Iran has reimposed strict controls over the waterway. It says the limits on shipping are in retaliation for the US blockade of Iranian ports and accuses the US of breaching its commitments.

Since then, at least two commercial vessels have reported coming under fire when they attempted to cross on Saturday.

At the centre of this strategy are small, fast-attack crafts operated by the IRGC. Hiding in tunnels along the coastline, many of these boats have survived the US strikes on Iran’s navy. They can deploy quickly, strike, and retreat to safety. Built for swarming tactics, they are difficult to track and target.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical maritime choke points. Twenty percent of global oil exports pass through the waterway, and although a convoy of eight tankers recently crossed, the first in weeks, Iran was quick to reassert control.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that US forces have targeted Iran’s naval assets and destroyed its mine-laying capabilities. Yet, these smaller boats continue to operate.

What we are seeing here is a shift in the war: from open conflict to controlled confrontation, concentrated in one of the world’s most sensitive waterways.

Earlier on Saturday, we heard President Trump say that Iran was getting ‘cute’ and that he wouldn’t allow it to blackmail the US. He made those remarks while saying negotiations are still ongoing. He said that the talks were going well.

I think he was trying to indicate that this [the closure of the strait] is perhaps a bump in the road rather than anything definitive.

You have to remember the order in which things happened.

First of all, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Twitter that they were going to open the Strait of Hormuz. Then, President Trump said, OK, thanks, but we’re going to continue our blockade. And then Iran said afterwards that if you’re going to continue the blockade, then we’re going to continue to close off the strait.

There was an order to the events. Iran’s declaration did not come out of nowhere.

Since then, though, President Trump has spent the day golfing. What he has done is call a meeting, according to the Axios outlet, in the Situation Room, which is a sort of basement under the West Wing of the White House, in which Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and others gathered to try and think about what to do next.

What we don’t have so far is whether there’s going to be a second round in the negotiations, as was thought just a day or two ago, and whether they’re going to happen in Islamabad, Pakistan, as the first round did. There’s now about three days before the ceasefire ends.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has been speaking to Iranian media on the status of the ceasefire and the negotiations with Washington.

Here’s a summary of what he said:

• Iran does not trust the US and believes it may resume hostilities at any moment, so Iranian armed forces “in the field are fully prepared”.
• The Strait of Hormuz is under Iran’s control, and the US decision to blockade Iranian ports is “foolish” and “ignorant”.
• If the US does not lift the blockade, “traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be restricted”. Others cannot pass through the strait while Iran cannot.
• The ceasefire extends to Lebanon and Hezbollah. “The resistance front came to the aid of the Islamic Republic; therefore, establishing a ceasefire had to include them, and one of Iran’s conditions was a ceasefire in the region.”
• “We have always sought normalisation of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, and we still do. If it has stopped now, it is because the ceasefire in Lebanon was not fully established.”
• “Negotiation is also a method of struggle to complete the field and assert the rights of the people present in the streets, and fulfil their demands.”

A maritime agency reported that a tanker was fired on by gunboats in the Strait of Hormuz.

The United ⁠Kingdom ⁠Maritime Trade Operations agency says it received a report ⁠of a tanker being fired upon by what it ‌said were two gunboats linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The vessel and ‌its crew were reported safe.

Watch below:

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says Tehran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz unless the US stops blockading Iranian ports.
• Two Indian-flagged vessels have come under attack while crossing the strait, prompting New Delhi to summon Iran’s ambassador.
• US President Donald Trump insists that the naval blockade will remain in force until there is a deal, and warns that Washington will not be blackmailed by Iran.
• Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh says Tehran is not ready to hold a new round of face-to-face talks with the US because Washington refuses to abandon its “maximalist” demands.
• Israeli forces have created what they are calling a “yellow line” across southern Lebanon and have confirmed carrying out attacks despite a ceasefire.
• A French soldier with the UN peacekeeping force has been killed in southern Lebanon, with President Emmanuel Macron blaming Hezbollah for the attack. The armed group denied the claim.
• Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem says the truce between Lebanon and Israel cannot be “one-sided” and that fighters remain in the field, prepared to respond to Israeli aggression.

Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the ceasefire in the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.

Stay with us for all of the latest news and analysis from across the Middle East and beyond.

You can find our updates from Saturday, April 18, here.