Iran cargo ship seized as Trump vows ‘no more Mr Nice Guy’
US President Donald Trump says the military has taken control of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship by blowing a hole in its engine room.
Source: US Central Command
US President Donald Trump says the US has seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship and opened fire on its engine room amid a stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz.
The ship was attempting to pass a US blockade of Iran’s ports and was given “fair warning to stop” in the Gulf of Oman, Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday morning (AEST).
When the vessel refused, the US Navy “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room”, Trump said.
The incident came after Trump vowed there would be “no more Mr Nice Guy” if Iran refused to accept a US peace deal.
Trump announced that more peace talks for Pakistan; however, Iran’s state TV has denied Iran has agreed to resume negotiations.
Trump said a US delegation would arrive on Monday night (local time), allowing just a day for a breakthrough before a two-week ceasefire ends.
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“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” he posted on social media.
Iranian state TV later reported that officials had not agreed to a second round of talks.
Iran cited Washington’s “excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”.
A White House official said the US delegation would be headed by Vice President JD Vance, who led the war’s first peace talks a week ago.
Trump’s envoy Steve Kushner and son-in-law Jared Kushner will also be there.
Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, earlier said the two sides had made progress, but were still far apart on nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.
The vital shipping strait remained closed on Sunday, a day after Iranian forces fired on two vessels that tried to cross.
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Iran, which has blocked off the strait to ships apart from its own since the US and Israel attacked on February 28, had announced on Friday it would reopen it.
But it reversed that decision on Saturday after Trump declined to lift a US blockade of Iranian ports.
“Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz — A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement!” Trump wrote in Sunday morning’s post.
“That wasn’t nice, was it?”
Trump’s renewed threat to hit Iran’s power plants and bridges fits a pattern of such warnings throughout the war, several of which preceded moves to de-escalate.
He abruptly announced the ceasefire two weeks ago just hours after declaring that Iran’s “whole civilisation will die tonight”.
Iran has said that if the United States attacks its civilian infrastructure it would hit power stations and desalination plants of Gulf Arab neighbours.
Now in its eighth week, the war has created the most severe shock to global energy supplies in history, sending oil prices surging because of the de facto closure of the strait which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments.
Two liquefied petroleum gas tankers were seen on ship-tracking websites moving eastbound towards the strait early on Sunday morning but the Tasnim news agency reported that Iran’s armed forces turned them back.
Marine traffic data showed no other movements after midnight.
Two giant US C-17 cargo planes landed at Pakistan’s Nur Khan air base on Sunday afternoon carrying security equipment and vehicles in preparation for the US delegation’s arrival, two Pakistani security sources said.
City authorities in the capital Islamabad halted public transport and heavy goods traffic through the city.
Rolls of barbed wire were rolled out near the Serena Hotel where last week’s talks were held.
The hotel told all guests on Sunday to leave.
-with AAP
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