{"id":409806,"date":"2026-04-21T10:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409806\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:04:11","slug":"iran-warns-it-has-new-cards-on-the-battlefield-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409806\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran warns it has \u2018new cards on the battlefield\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Main PointsThe status of peace talks in Pakistan<\/a> this week is unclear, with neither the United States<\/a> nor Iran<\/a> giving clear signs they will attendA two-week ceasefire is set to expire early on Wednesday and US president Donald Trump<\/a> says an extension is \u201chighly unlikely\u201d If the talks proceed, US vice-president JD Vance<\/a> is expected to fly to Islamabad to head up the US diplomatic delegation Israeli air strikes\u00a0hit a town<\/a>\u00a0in southern Lebanon despite a 10-day ceasefire on MondayThe Iranian-flagged ship seized by US forces on Sunday is likely to have what the US deems \u201cdual-use\u201d items, security sources said Iran says the seizure of the \u2060Touska, near its coast was \u201cunlawful and a violation\u201d \u200bof international lawOil prices fell and stocks bounced back in early trade in Asia on expectations that peace talks will resume Best Reads<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 21 minutes ago<\/p>\n

Three vessels appear to cross the Strait of Hormuz <\/p>\n

Three vessels – two cargo ships and a fuel tanker – appeared to have crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday as US and Iranian blockades remained in place.<\/p>\n

The Shoja 2, an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel, transited the strait and moved into the Gulf of Oman and is now in waters off Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, ship-tracking data show, according to Bloomberg. <\/p>\n

The progress of the ship is being closely watched after the US Navy seized another Iranian cargo ship on Sunday, the first capture since Washington imposed a blockade of the waterway last week.<\/p>\n

The other two vessels have no clear links to Iran. The Lian Star, a general cargo ship flagged to Gambia, crossed the strait and is now sailing southeast along Iran\u2019s coastline in the Gulf of Oman. The Ean Spir, a medium-range tanker previously named Blue Commander and with no identified owner, began sailing northeast from waters near Ras Al-Khaimah in the UAE, and is now heading south into the Gulf of Oman, indicating Shinas in Oman as its destination.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, traffic through the vital waterway remained at a virtual standstill following a chaotic weekend in which Iran declared the corridor open before closing it again after the US declined to lift its blockade. Around 800 vessels remain stuck in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

\"TankersTankers and bulk carriers anchored in the Strait of Hormuz. Photograph: Associated Press <\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 50 minutes ago<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s foreign \u200cminister Johann Wadephul has urged Iran \u200bto hold constructive talks with \u200bthe United States in \u2060Islamabad, Pakistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we \u200cknow, \u200cthe \u200bUS vice president \u2060is \u200bprepared to \u200btravel \u200cto Islamabad,\u201d Wadephul said \u200bahead of a \u2060foreign \u2060ministers\u2019 \u200bmeeting in Brussels on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIran should now take up \u200cthis \u2060offer for the sake of its \u200cown people.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"GermanGerman foreign minister Johann Wadephul speaks to the media upon arrival at a Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg city on Tuesday. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet\/EPA Ireland growth forecast faced upgrade but for Iran war, says Harris <\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has said if Iran had not been bombed, Ireland\u2019s growth forecast would have been upgraded in its spring forecast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat does speak to the resilience of the Irish economy where growth is strong, there are more people in work than ever before,\u201d he told reporters as he arrived at Government Buildings, Vivenne Clarke reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to move beyond the lazy politics of suggesting that surplus is a dirty word or a derogatory term. Thank God we have a surplus in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris said the spring economic forecast would include forecasts such as where oil prices stay at a high level, or where they are at an even higher level than they are currently.<\/p>\n

\u201cStagflation was a risk\u201d to the Irish economy, he said, but added Ireland had \u201cfiscal resilience\u201d at a challenging time.<\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister for Finance Simon Harris speaking to reporters before a Cabinet meeting at Government Buildings, Dublin. Photograph: Cillian Sherlock\/PA Wire<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is working on an evacuation plan for hundreds of ships that have been stuck in the Gulf since US and Israeli strikes on Iran began more than seven weeks ago, according to secretary general Arsenio Dominguez.<\/p>\n

The plan can only be put into action when there are clear signs of de-escalation, Dominguez said on the sidelines of Singapore Maritime Week. Details being discussed include an order of departure for vessels, depending on the length of time the crew has been stranded, among other factors, he added.<\/p>\n

Any transits would follow a long-established route – the Traffic Separation Scheme that was proposed by Iran and Oman and adopted by the IMO in 1968, Dominguez said. <\/p>\n

Iran has developed a system over the past few weeks that includes a specific route close to its coast and, in some cases, payment.<\/p>\n

The IMO is in touch with littoral states, including Iran and Oman, and flag states to finalise the blueprint.<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n

Over the past year, US air strikes have crippled Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, writes Michael Crowley. Several Iranian nuclear facilities lie in ruins. And the country\u2019s stockpile of enriched uranium \u2013 \u201cnuclear dust\u201d, as US president Donald Trump calls it \u2013 is thought to be buried deep under rubble.<\/p>\n

But even after a US bombing raid last June and more than five weeks of attacks on Iran since February, one suspected nuclear site remains untouched.<\/p>\n

Read the full piece here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n

Iran military ready to deliver \u2018immediate \u200cand decisive response\u2019 <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s \u200carmed forces are ready to deliver an \u201cimmediate \u200cand decisive response\u201d to any renewed hostile \u200baction by its adversaries, a senior Iranian military commander said on \u200bTuesday, according to semi-official Tasnim news \u2060agency.<\/p>\n

A two-week ceasefire between Iran \u200cand \u200cthe \u200bUS is set to expire on Wednesday. The \u2060two \u200bcountries have accused \u200beach other of breaching the \u200cceasefire and have \u200bboth tightened control over Gulf maritime \u2060transit.<\/p>\n

Ali Abdollahi, \u2060commander \u200bof the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said Tehran retained the upper hand in the military field, including in the management \u200cof the \u2060Strait of Hormuz, and would not allow the US \u200cpresident to \u201ccreate false narratives over the \u200bsituation on the \u200bground\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 3 hours ago<\/p>\n

Trump says he is \u2018not going to be rushed into making a bad deal\u2019<\/p>\n

US president Donald Trump signalled he is unlikely to extend a two-week ceasefire with Iran that\u2019s set to expire in two days, while Iran has yet to confirm it will participate in talks to end the war. <\/p>\n

Trump said in an interview on Monday that the ceasefire expires on Wednesday evening in Washington and he is \u201cnot going to be rushed into making a bad deal\u201d. He said the Strait of Hormuz would stay blockaded for now, and \u201cI\u2019m not opening it until a deal is signed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said his country would not \u201caccept negotiations under the shadow of threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

The standoff underscores the uncertainty surrounding a new round of talks, even after Trump said negotiations could begin as early as Tuesday. The US president has threatened strikes on Iran\u2019s power infrastructure if diplomacy fails. <\/p>\n

A pause in hostilities has mostly held for two weeks after a conflict that killed thousands across the region and disrupted global energy supplies. <\/p>\n

US vice-president JD Vance will leave for Pakistan to participate in negotiations that are set to begin \u201ceither Tuesday night or Wednesday morning\u201d, Trump said on Monday. He is expected to be joined by the president\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a meeting. They want a meeting, and they should want a meeting. And it can work out well,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump speaks during a Turning Point USA Build the Red Wall event in Phoenix, last week. Photograph: Kenny Holston\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

Trump says recovering Iran\u2019s uranium will be \u2018long and difficult\u2019 \"DonaldDonald Trump has claimed Iran’s nuclear sites have been ‘obliterated’. <\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a> has said retrieving uranium from Iran will be a \u201clong and difficult\u201d process in the wake of the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cOperation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran,\u201d the president posted on his Truth Social platform overnight. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump has used nuclear dust to refer to Iran\u2019s stockpile of enriched uranium but also to nuclear materials left from the June strikes. <\/p>\n

The US president claimed after the bombardment that it had \u201cobliterated\u201d Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, but it soon became apparent this was not true. The bombs had wreaked extensive damage but deep underground sites \u2013 burrowed beneath mountains in two sites in particular, Isfahan and Natanz \u2013 could not be destroyed.<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s latest post he also hit out at news outlets, saying: \u201cFake News CNN, and other corrupt Media Networks and Platforms, fail to give our great aviators the credit they deserve – Always trying to demean and belittle – LOSERS!!!\u201d <\/p>\n

The future of Iran\u2019s nuclear material has become a key sticking point between the US and Iran in their ongoing standoff. Trump last week claimed Iran had agreed to hand over its enriched uranium to the US, prompting Iran to say it had not. <\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

Representatives \u200cfor Donald Trump\u2019s Board of \u200cPeace have held discussions \u200bwith state-owned Dubai multinational DP World about \u200bmanaging supply chains \u2060and other infrastructure projects in \u200cGaza, \u200cthe \u200bFinancial Times reported \u2060on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The talks \u200bexamined whether DP \u2060World \u2060could \u200benter into a partnership with the Board of Peace to run the logistics \u200cfor humanitarian \u2060aid and other goods entering Gaza, \u200cthe report said.<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

Oil prices fall on hopes of talks breakthrough \"FuelFuel prices are displayed outside an Exxon filling station in Washington, DC. Prices have risen sharply across the US since the start of the US and Israeli conflict with Iran. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo\/EPA <\/p>\n

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, reversing gains in the previous session, on expectations peace talks between the US and Iran will take place this week \u200band allow more supply to flow from the key Middle East producing region.<\/p>\n

Brent crude futures declined 54 cents, or 0.6 per cent, at $94.94 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May fell $1.11, or 1.2 per cent, to $88.50. The May contract expires on Tuesday and the more-active June contract was down 76 cents, or 0.9 per cent, at $86.66.<\/p>\n

Both benchmarks surged on \u200bMonday, with Brent up 5.6 per cent and WTI up 6.9 per cent, after Iran again shut the Strait of Hormuz, closing the key oil transport artery, and the US seized an \u2060Iranian cargo ship as part of its blockade of the country\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

Vessels attempt to cross Strait of Hormuz <\/p>\n

Three vessels \u2013 two cargo ships and a fuel tanker \u2013 appeared to be attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz early on Tuesday as US and Iranian blockades remained in place.<\/p>\n

The Shoja 2, an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel, crossed the strait and moved into the Gulf of Oman, but has now stopped signalling its location. The progress of the ship is being closely watched after the US navy seized another Iranian cargo ship on Sunday, the first capture since Washington imposed a blockade of the waterway last week.<\/p>\n

The other two vessels have no clear links to Iran. The Lian Star, a general cargo ship flagged to Gambia, has crossed the strait and is now turning south toward the Gulf of Oman. The Ean Spir, a medium-range tanker with no identified owner, began sailing northeast from waters near Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, and is now south of Larak island, indicating Shinas in Oman as its destination.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, traffic through the vital waterway remained at a near standstill following a chaotic weekend in which Iran declared the corridor open before closing it again after the US declined to lift its blockade. Some 800 vessels remain stuck in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump <\/a>said on Monday that the US blockade would remain in place for now. The US leader said a two-week ceasefire with Iran, which expires on Wednesday evening in Washington, was not likely to be extended. Talks between the two countries are expected to take place in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

JD Vance to lead US delegation in Pakistan<\/p>\n

JD Vance <\/a>is expected to fly to Islamabad at the head of a US diplomatic delegation on Tuesday if Iran agrees to further talks in the Pakistani<\/a> capital as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms.<\/p>\n

The US vice-president will travel with Steve Witkoff,<\/a> Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s special envoy, and Jared Kushner<\/a>, the president\u2019s son-in-law \u2013 though Iran\u2019s president warned there remained a \u201cdeep historical mistrust\u201d of the US.<\/p>\n

Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was concerned about \u201cunconstructive and contradictory signals from American officials\u201d and concluded they amounted to an effort to seek the country\u2019s surrender. \u201cIranians do not submit to force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"USUS vice-president JD Vance: to travel to Pakistan for talks. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

However, one senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency that Tehran was \u201cpositively reviewing\u201d its participation, amid reports that its delegation would again be headed by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf if Vance attends.<\/p>\n

Ghalibaf said later that Iran would not accept negotiations with the US while under threat, adding in the post on X early on Tuesday that \u201cwe have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield\u201d. He also accused Trump of seeking to \u201cturn this negotiating table \u2013 in his own imagination \u2013 into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tehran called for an end to the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, while Trump repeated a demand that Iran should never be allowed to build a nuclear weapon and said he would be willing to meet Iranian leaders himself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Main PointsThe status of peace talks in Pakistan this week is unclear, with neither the United States nor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10748,969,5485,37635,42,11829,3410,150432,14396,43,40,38,41,39,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-409806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-binyamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-energy-costs","11":"tag-energy-crisis","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israel-iran-conflict","16":"tag-lebanon","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}