“US Israel Iran War”

A joke making the rounds in Iran is that the Israeli airstrike that killed Ayatollah Khamenei at the start of war merely made him decades younger.

His son and successor Mojtaba, observers say, is a more radical version of the father, and wants revenge. President Trump had recently been insistent that he achieved “regime change” in Iran, heralding “much more rational” leaders with whom US negotiators could talk. For all he has said, the “great deal” Trump expected to extract this week from the rational regime has failed to materialise, forcing an extension of the ceasefire.

Iranian state media has reportedly signaled readiness for a potential resumption of war with the United States, amid uncertainty over whether Iran will be able to agree on a unified proposal. This comes even after being granted an additional three to five days under the ceasefire, as hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members clash with Iranian government officials over whether to concede to American demands or go down fighting.

Iran’s navy said it has seized two cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz and taken them to the country’s coast after reports that three vessels came under fire from Iranian forces.

Nour News, a website affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) opened fire on the first ship, the Epaminodes, after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces”.

A second ship, named Euphoria, was then stopped after being “fired upon”, followed by the targeting of a third vessel, the MSC-Francesca, according to BBC Verify.

BREAKING: Three separate ships were reportedly attacked in the Strait of Hormuz during what was supposed to be a ceasefire with Iran.

"The third cargo ship, the most recent, reportedly has been attacked while attempting to transit the strait. It may have a Panama flag on it."… pic.twitter.com/AVeQTRMKRX

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) April 22, 2026

The build-up to peace talks between Iran and the US in Pakistan has already seen false starts. President Trump prematurely announced a deal would be signed, while Iran denied it would even send anyone to Islamabad.

The White House set high expectations, saying on Monday that a “good deal” was to be reached, while Iran poured cold water on American optimism and insisted it would not negotiate at all while under naval blockade.

But with the ceasefire set to expire on Tuesday night, both sides will most probably travel to Pakistan to agree, at a minimum, an extension of the truce, even though Trump has ruled it out without a framework agreement before a deal.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the Iranian armed forces, has blocked President Masoud Pezeshkian’s presidential appointments and erected what sources described as a security cordon around Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, a report published Tuesday by Iran International said.

The IRGC effectively has assumed control over key state functions, the report claimed.

NEW: The U.S. is STILL awaiting confirmation about whether or not Iran will attend peace talks in Pakistan as the hours tick down on the ceasefire. @MattFinnFNC reports on the latest. | @AmericaRpts pic.twitter.com/QcrbH7R3gG

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 21, 2026

While the world’s attention has been focused on diplomatic efforts to end the Iran war, the Iranian regime — whatever is left of it, that is — has been busy doing what it does best: brutalising its own people.

At the same time that the Trump administration has been repeatedly offering Tehran the possibility of a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, the Islamic hardliners still running the country are seeking to reassert their stranglehold over the Iranian people by embarking on a fresh round of executions.

President Donald Trump said in a new interview that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States and Iran reach a peace deal to end the ongoing war.

The two nations are set to begin a second round of peace deal talks this week in Islamabad, Pakistan, as a two-week ceasefire is expected to expire.

WATCH IN FULL: President Trump's interview on CNBC. pic.twitter.com/pPzI2iImSe

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 21, 2026

Both the president and vice president have thrown out the term “grand bargain” in recent days to describe their aspirations for a deal with the Iranian rump regime.

It’s a term fraught with past failures that screams Iranian deception, not the interests of America First.

Bill Clinton was the first to use the phrase toward the end of his second term to describe his aspiration to end a low-intensity conflict that had been simmering for 20 years.

When a ceasefire in the Gulf was first being discussed, an Iranian military spokesman accused President Trump of “negotiating with himself”.

The regime loves pouring scorn on America, calling its politics stupid and unsophisticated. But the comment rang true to more than just the Iranians.

President Trump’s rhetoric, especially on his personal platform Truth Social, often seems to take issue with his own policies.

Donald Trump said he was “highly unlikely” to extend the ceasefire in Iran and threatened to resume bombing if a deal was not reached by Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, the US president said he would not be “rushed into making a bad deal” as JD Vance prepared to travel to Islamabad to lead a second round of peace talks.

But uncertainty hung over the prospect of direct negotiations after Iran refused to say whether it would attend the talks as the clock on the two-week ceasefire deadline ticked on.

In New York social circles, he was known as the “Jewish James Bond”: a refugee from Nazi Germany whose gratitude to his American hosts was such that he volunteered to join the US army and became the CIA’s first station chief in Berlin as a mere twentysomething, filing early warnings about Soviet activity that have been credited with ringing in the cold war.

Like 007, Peter Sichel also appreciated a fine tipple, and after leaving the US foreign intelligence service it was he who briefly turned a sweet German white, Blue Nun, into one of the best-selling wines in the world.

A film released in UK cinemas a year after his death aged 102, however, shows Sichel as something more akin to a Jewish Jason Bourne: a former agent who grew increasingly disillusioned with CIA meddling and turned a trenchant critic from beyond his grave of US foreign policy – especially in Iran.

I remember Blue Nun alright.

The consequences stemming from the overthrow of the Mossadegh government are certainly worthy of debate but there is no comparison to be made with today’s Iran given its status as a terror state and the broad anti-regime resistance of the Iranian people.

Mixed signals from Iran and the US cloud the reality in the Strait of Hormuz.

Is the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on or off? Is the parallel U.S. blockade of Iranian ports off or on? And why do we care about the @#$!& Strait anyway?

Ok, let’s get a few things straight, which is going to take a while because both the U.S. and Iran have been spreading the fog of war to the best of our (and their) ability.

US President Donald J. Trump’s negotiations and ceasefire deals with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah are not seen by these actors as steps toward peace.

Rather, they are viewed by Tehran, Gaza and Beirut as infidels trying to tell Muslims what to do. For them, such a situation is unimaginable, unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to stand.

President Donald Trump rejected claims that Israel pressured the United States into initiating Operation Epic Fury, a joint operation that launched the Iran war in late February.

“Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday morning. “I watch and read the FAKE NEWS Pundits and Polls in total disbelief. 90% of what they say are lies and made up stories.”

Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, has been quoted by Al Jazeera as having said that Iran has no plans for a new round of talks with the US, saying Washington has violated the agreement from its implementation.

The spokesperson also said Tehran can’t forget US attacks on Iran during previous diplomatic talks as he insisted that Iran will continue defending its national interests.

U.S. Marines depart amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) by helicopter and transit over the Arabian Sea to board and seize M/V Touska. The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 19, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska’s… pic.twitter.com/mFxI5RzYCS

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 20, 2026