Sawt Falasteen - Iran says seized two ships seeking to cross Strait of Hormuz

UK-based maritime security monitors confirmed that three commercial vessels had reported incidents involving gunboats in the strait, the international gateway for the Gulf oil and gas industry which US and Iranian forces are battling to control.

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval force this morning identified and stopped in the Strait of Hormuz two violating ships," the Guards said in a statement. "The two offending ships... were seized by the IRGC's naval forces and directed to the Iranian coast."

They identified one ship as the Panama-flagged container ship MSC Francesca and the Liberia-flagged Epaminodas. The tracking site Marine Traffic showed the last known positions of both vessels closer to the Iranian coast of the strait, northeast of Oman.

Earlier, the British maritime security monitor UKMTO said one container ship reported it was fired upon by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) boat 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman, causing damage to the bridge but no casualties.

Separately, a third ship was fired upon and stopped in the water eight nautical miles west of the Iranian coast, UKMTO said, without identifying the attackers.

British Security firm Vanguard Tech identified it as the Panama-flagged containership Euphoria, which it said was "transiting outbound of the Strait of Hormuz".

The US Navy is attempting to block vessels heading to and from Iranian ports, while Tehran has said vessels must seek permission to leave or enter the Gulf through Hormuz, a route that in peacetime accounts for a fifth of the world's oil and gas exports along with other vital commodities.

- 'Stateless and sanctioned' -

The US Defense Department said Tuesday that US forces had intercepted and boarded a "stateless sanctioned" vessel. AFP has identified the ship as one linked to Iranian activity. Both sides accuse the other of ceasefire breaches.

Before the latest attacks, Trump had said he had pushed back the end of the two-week truce following a request by Pakistani mediators and to give Iran's "fractured" leadership time to form a proposal.

The ceasefire has brought some respite to a region engulfed for weeks in war but, with no agreement yet in place, uncertainty remains and brought little relief to global markets.

Trump said the US blockade of Iran's ports would continue, while Pakistani mediators try to revive a dialogue.

Iran has all but shut the strait in the seven weeks since the United States and Israel launched a massive attack on the Islamic republic that plunged the Middle East into war.

Residents in the Iranian capital who spoke to Paris-based AFP journalists said life had worsened despite the truce.

"This cursed ceasefire has broken us," said Saghar, 39. "I don't know anyone around me who is doing well."

Oil prices fell, along with stocks, on Wednesday as investors assessed the chances of US-Iran peace talks.

- Pakistan talks? -

Britain and other US allies have previously told Washington they would not join any military effort to forcibly reopen Hormuz.

But the British defence ministry said it would host two days of UK-France led talks on the waterway involving more than 30 countries starting Wednesday.

The fate of peace talks hosted by Pakistan remains unclear. A previous round collapsed with Tehran accusing the United States of making excessive demands on Hormuz and its nuclear programme.

A White House official confirmed that Vice President JD Vance would not travel to Pakistan for a new round of negotiations as previously planned, pending the submission of an Iranian proposal.

Iran, on the other hand, never announced whether it had decided to send a delegation, with experts saying its noncommittal was a way to put pressure on the Trump administration.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for extending the ceasefire. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also welcomed the move.

In Lebanon, which was also plunged into war when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge its killing of Iran's supreme leader, an Israeli strike killed one person and wounded two others on Wednesday, Lebanese state media said.

- 'Blatant violations' -

A separate 10-day ceasefire was agreed between the two nations on Friday and included Hezbollah.

But the militant group on Tuesday said it had launched rockets and attack drones at northern Israel in response to "blatant" ceasefire violations, which it said included "attacks on civilians and the destruction of their homes and villages".

The Israeli military said that day that Hezbollah "launched several rockets" towards soldiers still stationed in south Lebanon and that the military struck the launcher in response.

Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold fresh talks in Washington on Thursday, a State Department official told AFP.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,454 people since the start of the war, a Lebanese government body said in its latest toll.

burs/dc/ser

A.AbuSaada--SF-PST