A Trump blockade of Iranian ports?
No ships thru the Strait of Hormuz
Or?
24 Ships thru the Strait of Hormuz?
Iran NO nuke program for 5 years….
Or?
20 Years?
No European help STILL for Trump in this debacle ….
Israeli’s NOT Happy with their leaders own war against Lebanon and Iran which had been shooting BACK at Israel thru their invincible ‘Iron Dome’?
US Intel says Iran Still has drones and missiles that Hegseth they don’t….
Iran’s proxies keep firing missiles at other Middle East countries …..
Trump says he’s Winning….
Iran says its Winning…..
Things ARE a HOT MESS and Trump seems to think he’s Jesus on top of ALL of This?
Oh?…Are they back channel talking?
The United States and Iran traded proposals for a suspension of Iranian nuclear activities during weekend negotiations in Pakistan, but remain far apart on the length of any agreement, according to Iranian and U.S. officials.
Iran said Monday that it could suspend uranium enrichment for up to five years — an offer the Trump administration rejected, insisting on 20 years, according to two senior Iranian officials and one U.S. official. Still, the discussions suggested that there may be a path to a peace deal, even as the U.S. military began its blockade of Iranian ports on Monday, threatening a nearly week-old cease-fire.
Officials said they were discussing a second round of face-to-face talks, but provided no details.
President Trump announced the blockade after high-level negotiations with Iran broke down over the weekend, and said that other countries would join in. But on Monday, several European leaders rejected the idea, and at least one vessel, a tanker linked to Iran, appeared to defy the blockade.
Shortly after the blockade went into effect Monday morning, Iran promised to retaliate. A spokesman for its powerful Revolutionary Guards threatened to “introduce new methods of warfare,” and an Iranian military spokesman, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, said “no port in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will be safe” if Iranian ports were threatened.
The goal of the blockade is to prevent Iran from profiting from oil exports and to put pressure on its leaders to accept American conditions for ending more than a month of war. The U.S. military said that it would block ships “entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas” while allowing other vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz on their way to other ports.
Before the United States moved to restrict traffic through the strait, it was Iran that had essentially shut it down. Iranian forces largely barred Western tankers and ships from transiting the strait, a Persian Gulf waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil passes.
The price of oil has soared by more than 50 percent at times since the war began in late February. On Monday, the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, reached $102 a barrel and later settled at around $99.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
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Israel: The 40-day war with Iran and the continued war with Hezbollah have left many Israelis despairing over how little they believe the fighting accomplished, particularly compared with what they had been promised, according to two new polls. Read more ›
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Lebanon: The Israeli military said that its forces had encircled and raided the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, one of the largest communities near the border between the two countries. Israel’s attacks there have become a sticking point in the cease-fire negotiations, as Iran has demanded the truce extend to Lebanon. The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States are scheduled to meet in Washington on Tuesday for rare direct talks.
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Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Monday said that 2,089 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, including 357 in a wave of Israeli strikes last Wednesday. In attacks attributed to Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Gulf nations. At least 22 people had been killed in Israel as of Sunday, as well as 12 Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
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The US blockade of ships using Iranian ports in the Gulf began on Monday, turning the six-week-old conflict between the US-Israeli coalition and Iran into a test of economic endurance.
US Central Command (Centcom) made no formal announcement of the start of the blockade but had said it would take effect at 5.30pm Iranian time on Monday, and would apply to any ships entering or departing Iranian ports or coastal areas. Ships using non-Iranian ports would not be impeded.
Donald Trump claimed that 34 ships had passed on Sunday through the strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Gulf, but gave no supporting evidence. Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president also claimed: “We’ve been called by the other side,” who he said would “like to make a deal very badly”.
In other key developments:
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Trump said the blockade would be on all Iranian ports along the strait from Monday onward. About 20% of the global oil and gas supply moved through the waterway before the war. Seafarers as well as the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations received advisories indicating Trump’s blockade would apply to all ship traffic, regardless of the vessel’s flag.
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Trump claimed that Iran wanted to reach a deal. He insisted the US would not agree to any deal that would permit Iran to have a nuclear weapon. “We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world,” he said at a last-minute press conference at the White House on Monday.
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After receiving a McDonald’s delivery at the beginning of the presser, Trump invoked bellicose language in discussing Iran. “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and we’re going to get the dust back. We’ll get it back, either we’ll get it back from them, or we’ll take it,” he said. At one point, when questioned about some sort of prior ultimatum regarding Iran, Trump said: “I don’t want to comment on that but it won’t be pleasant.”
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Talks are expected in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the US. It will be the first time in decades that envoys from Lebanon and Israel, which do not have diplomatic relations, will meet face-to-face in direct talks. Lebanese officials are looking to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
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There were reports indicating US officials were continuing talks with Tehran. One official told CNN: “There is continued engagement between the US and Iran and forward motion on trying to get an agreement.” Meanwhile, some administration officials were having internal talks about how a second sit-down with Iranian officials might look should the opportunity arise, the network reported.
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Trump blasted Pope Leo XIV on social media in response to the pontiff’s call for an end to the war. The president claimed the pope was trying to appease the “radical left”. The pope said he had “no intention to debate” Trump over Iran but would continue to advocate for peace. US vice-president JD Vance urged the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality”…..
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ISW….Iran Update Special Report, April 13, 2026
- Iranian-backed Iraqi militias are likely responsible for at least some of the recent drone attacks against Gulf states. It is very unlikely that Iranian-backed Iraqi militias would conduct drone attacks against regional states if the Iranian regime opposed such attacks, which suggests that Iran has not ordered its militia partners to cease attacking regional states.
- The US negotiating delegation demanded a 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment, the removal of Iran’s highly enriched uranium (HEU) stockpile from Iran, and unfettered freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz during the negotiations in Pakistan. Iran countered the 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment with a “single-digit” number of years and offered to downblend its HEU instead of handing over its HEU stockpile. It is unclear whether the three US demands and the Iranian counterproposal represent the full scope of each side’s demands.
- US Central Command (CENTCOM) is simultaneously imposing a blockade on Iranian ports and vessels while taking steps to open the official transit route through the Strait of Hormuz for vessels transiting to or from non-Iranian ports. CENTCOM implemented its blockade on Iranian ports and vessels at 10:00 AM ET on April 13.
- Iranian and Iranian-approved vessels continued to use the Iranian-approved transit route to cross the Strait of Hormuz before the blockade went into effect on April 13, but more vessels transited outside this route near the Omani coast than on April 12. At least two oil tankers destined for China via the Iranian-approved transit route turned around after CENTCOM began blockading Iranian and Iranian-approved shipping.
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Trump’s Iran threats renew debate over war crimes, illegal orders
Investigating US forces
Susana Sacouto, director of the War Crimes Research Office at American University’s Washington College of Law, said the Geneva Conventions require the U.S. to “investigate and … deal with alleged violations of the law of war by its own forces.”
How well that works in practice has “varied over time,” she said.
“The problem is, we have an architecture, but those cases, particularly the criminal cases, are really exceptional, and they’re really exceptional, especially regarding senior officials,” Sacouto said. “So there’s been a lot of criticism about whether that architecture that exists is actually functioning to routinely investigate our own military actions for potential war crimes or (international humanitarian law) violations.”
There is the possibility a future presidential administration may have defense officials or the Department of Justice look into allegations that emerge during the Trump administration. But Sacouto said, “past history with respect to accountability for U.S. officials, especially senior officials, is not very encouraging.”
Congressional investigations into the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of torture in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is one example Sacouto pointed to of a long-term investigation that did not lead to any high-level prosecutions.
“Even then, no senior officials were really ultimately held accountable for their role in that program,” she said. “There were lower-level Abu Ghraib prosecutions, but no senior-level folks were found accountable.”…
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