Ships attacked in Strait of Hormuz amid efforts to re-start peace talks

A second ship has come under attack in the Strait of Hormuz, the British military said, just a short time after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a container vessel.

The move complicates efforts to bring the United States and Iran together in Pakistan for talks to end the war.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO) did not immediately identify who shot at the second ship.

However, suspicion immediately fell on Iran, whose paramilitary Revolutionary Guard earlier opened fire on the container ship.

In the second attack, the cargo ship said it had been fired upon and was stopped in the water. There was no reported damage to the vessel.

The attacks come days after the US seized an Iranian container ship after shooting at it this past weekend and boarded an oil tanker associated with Iran’s oil trade in the Indian Ocean.

Late on Tuesday, US president Donald Trump said America would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, which had been due to expire on Wednesday, to give Tehran time to come up with a “unified proposal” ahead of possible negotiations.

Iran has offered no formal acknowledgment of Mr Trump’s ceasefire extension.

Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Mr Trump for agreeing to the extension, saying it would buy time for ongoing diplomatic efforts.

“With the trust and confidence reposed in us, Pakistan shall continue its earnest efforts for a negotiated settlement of the conflict,” he wrote on X.

Mr Trump said the US would continue its blockade of Iranian ports, which Iran has called “unacceptable”, and has indicated was a reason it had not yet agreed to join talks in Islamabad.

The Revolutionary Guard vowed on Wednesday to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets in the region”.

Iran’s Nour News reported that the Guard opened fire on the ship after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces”. The contradicts a report by the UKMTO, claiming the Guard gunboat did not hail the ship before firing.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency described the attack as Iran “lawfully enforcing its control over the Strait of Hormuz”.

In peacetime, about 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas transits the strategic waterway, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open oceans and was fully open until the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 to start the war.

Since then, Tehran has throttled shipping traffic through the strait, causing oil prices to skyrocket and impacting global economies.