Iran fires on three ships in Strait of Hormuz derailing US-Iran talks push

A boat sails past a tanker anchored on the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm island, Iran (Asghar Besharati/AP)

Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, underscoring the ongoing threat to global energy supplies and complicating efforts to bring the US and Iran together for talks to end the war.

The attacks, which Iranian media said were carried out by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came after President Donald Trump said the US would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, due to expire on Wednesday.

But Mr Trump said the US would continue to blockade Iranian ports, and the attacks reinforced the dangers to traffic in the strait, through which 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas pass in peacetime.

Police officers stand guard at a checkpoint in Islamabad, Pakistan (Anjum Naveed/AP)

That means that even if the ceasefire largely holds — and Iran and the Us do not resume major attacks — the war will continue to weigh heavily on the global economy.

Already the conflict has sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products.

The longer the strait remains closed, the more severe and widespread the effects will be — and the longer it will take the economy to bounce back.

Iran has offered no formal acknowledgment of Mr Trump’s extension, but an Iranian diplomat said talks would not resume until the blockade is lifted.

Iran opened fire on a container ship in the strait on Wednesday morning, and a second was attacked a short time later, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre.

Iranian state television reported later reported that the ships were in the Revolutionary Guard’s custody and being taken to Iran.

A man rides his motorbike adorned with an Iranian national flag, in southern Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP)

It identified the vessels as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas.

The ship’s owners could not be immediately reached for comment.

The seizures represent an escalation by Iran’s leaders, who appear poised to drive a harder bargain with American negotiators after two other rounds of talks with the Trump administration ended in open warfare.

The semi-official Nour News, Fars and Mehr news agencies then reported the Guard attacked a third vessel called the Euphoria.

They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating.

The UKMTO said the first ship was attacked by a Revolutionary Guard gunboat that did not hail the ship before firing.

It added that nobody was hurt in the attack.

Iran’s Nour News, however, reported that the Guard only opened fire on the ship after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces”.

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

There have been more than 30 attacks on ships in the Middle East since the war began on February 28 with US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.