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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Jordan flagged cargo ship “Baghdad” sails in Persian Gulf towards Strait of Hormuz in United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n
\u201cI am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it was still unclear when, or if, the two sides would meet again in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where mediators are trying to bring the countries together to reach a diplomatic deal.<\/p>\n
Negotiations initially planned for this week have not happened. Iran insists it will not attend until the U.S. ends its blockade on Iranian ports and ships. America insists it will not take part until Tehran opens the strait to international traffic.<\/p>\n
\n Pope Leo XIV, returning home from a trip to Africa, urged the U.S. and Iran to return to talks to end the war.<\/p>\n
Footage shows US forces on deck of tanker<\/p>\n
The Defense Department released video footage earlier Thursday of U.S. forces on the deck of the Guinea-flagged oil tanker Majestic X, which was seized in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n
The footage emerged a day after Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard attacked three cargo ships in the strait, capturing two of them, in an assault that raised new concerns about the safety of shipping through the waterway.<\/p>\n
The powerful head of Iran\u2019s judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, said three \u201cviolating ships\u201d in the strait were \u201csubject to enforcement\u201d on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show of strength by the armed forces of Islamic Iran in the Strait of Hormuz is a source of pride,\u201d he wrote Thursday on X, claiming that the Americans \u201clack the courage\u201d to approach the strait.<\/p>\n
Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, roughly the same location as the oil tanker Tifani, which was seized earlier by American forces. It had been bound for Zhoushan, China.<\/p>\n
The vessel previously had been named Phonix and had been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2024 for smuggling Iranian crude oil in contravention of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate response from Iran about the seizure.<\/p>\n
Trump claims leadership rift in Iran<\/p>\n
Trump this week extended a ceasefire to give the battered Iranian leadership more time to come up with a \u201cunified proposal\u201d on ending the war, while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.<\/p>\n
In a separate post Thursday, Trump claimed a leadership rift between moderates and hardliners was confounding Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don\u2019t know!\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The president has repeatedly said over the course of the ceasefire that began on April 8 that his team is dealing with Iranian officials who want to make a deal, while acknowledging that his decision to kill several top leaders has come with complications.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote on X that Iran has \u201cno radicals or moderates\u201d and said his country would \u201cmake the aggressor criminal regret his actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lebanon and Israel to hold second round of talks<\/p>\n
Elsewhere on the diplomatic track, Lebanon and Israel were set to hold a second round of talks in Washington to discuss the possibility of extending a truce between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.<\/p>\n