Iran fired on three ships within the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, intensifying its assault on shipping within the waterway crucial to global energy supplies and complicating already faltering efforts to bring america and Iran together for talks to finish the war.
The attacks were carried out by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in accordance with Iranian media, which reported that the force seized two of the ships and was bringing them to Iran.
That amounted to an escalation by Iran’s leaders, who appear poised to drive a harder bargain with American negotiators after U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran that had been as a consequence of expire Wednesday.
Despite the extension, Trump also appeared to dig in, saying the U.S. would proceed to blockade Iranian ports.
That set the stage for continued disruption to traffic within the strait, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil and natural gas pass in peacetime, even when the ceasefire largely holds.
Already the conflict has sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the associated fee of food and a big selection of other products. The longer the strait stays closed, the more severe and widespread the results might be — and the longer it’s going to take the economy to bounce back.
Iran opened fire on a container ship within the strait on Wednesday morning, and a second was attacked a short while later, in accordance with the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.
Iranian state television later reported that the ships were each attacked by the Revolutionary Guard and were within the force’s custody and being taken to Iran.
Get each day National news
Get each day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you may never miss the day’s top stories.
The semiofficial Nour News, Fars and Mehr news agencies then reported the Guard attacked a 3rd vessel, which it said had turn out to be “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating.
There have been greater than 30 attacks on ships within the Mideast because the war began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
Iran’s ability to limit traffic through the strait — which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean — has proved a significant strategic advantage.
While the ceasefire implies that American and Israeli airstrikes have stopped in Iran — and Tehran’s missiles now not goal Israel and the broader Middle East — the attacks within the strait and earlier American interdictions of Iranian ships show the maritime threat stays.
With none diplomatic agreement, those attacks will likely deter ships from even attempting to go through the waterway, and further squeeze global energy supplies. Wednesday’s attacks saw Brent crude oil, the international standard, spike to almost $100 a barrel, up greater than 35 per cent because the war began.
Because the assaults unfolded, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vowed to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets within the region.”
The night before, hard-line supporters of Iran’s theocracy held rallies wherein the Guard showed off missiles and launchers — an indication 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. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei acknowledged Trump’s ceasefire extension in comments reported Wednesday by Iranian state television but didn’t specifically say Tehran was able to attend a brand new round of talks.
Earlier, Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the top of the Iranian mission in Egypt, told The Associated Press that no delegation would go to Pakistan until the U.S. lifts its blockade.
Two Pakistani officials told the AP that Islamabad remains to be waiting to listen to from Tehran on when it’s going to send a delegation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to refer to the media.
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 world.
A ten-day ceasefire went into effect in Lebanon on Friday, but there have been several Israeli strikes and Hezbollah claimed its first attack on Tuesday.
For the reason that war began, at the least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, in accordance with authorities. Greater than 2,290 people has been killed in Lebanon, 23 people have died in Israel and greater 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.
© 2026 The Canadian Press