'Impossible' to reopen strait of Hormuz amid 'flagrant' ceasefire breaches, Iran says

Source: The Guardian

Wed 22 Apr 2026 17.19 EDT
First published on Wed 22 Apr 2026 12.37 EDT


Iranian forces have seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz as the US and Iran doubled down on imposing separate blockades of the shipping waterway. The standoff over the strait – through which about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied fossil gas passed through during peacetime – has raised doubts about whether stalled peace negotiations will resume.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and lead negotiator, said late on Wednesday that reopening the strait of Hormuz would be “impossible” while the US and Israel committed “flagrant” breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade, “the hostage-taking of the world’s economy” and “Zionist warmongering”. He added in a post on X that the US and Israel “did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying”.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said earlier that their naval forces had stopped two ships attempting to cross the strait and brought them to shore.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency ​reported that the IRGC ​had accus​ed the two ships – the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and Liberia-flagged Epaminondas – of “attempting to exit the strait of Hormuz covertly”.​. The Epaminondas is Greek-​operated, and Greece’s foreign minister confirmed there had been an attack against a Greek-owned cargo ship.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/22/iranian-forces-ships-seized-strait-of-hormuz-us-peace-talks