Iran…Trump…Evening…4/19/2026…US Navy fires on on and seizes an Iranian Tanker…US Navy IS clearing the Strait of Mines….

The guided missile destroyer USS Spruance fired on the cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman, Mr. Trump said on Truth Social, “blowing a hole” in its engine room before Marines took possession of the vessel. The president said the ship was under U.S. sanctions because of a “history of illegal activity” and that U.S. forces were “seeing what’s on board!”

Mr. Trump did not say whether there had been any casualties. Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that U.S. forces had fired on an Iranian merchant vessel, but said naval units from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had forced the Americans to retreat.

The attack occurred in the Gulf of Oman, south of the Strait of Hormuz, the economically vital waterway that has become a flashpoint in negotiations. Iran imposed a blockade on the channel itself, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil normally travels, and the U.S. countered by blocking traffic to Iranian ports. On Saturday, Iran attacked two Indian vessels attempting a transit, acts Mr. Trump described earlier Sunday as a “total violation of our cease-fire.”

The fate of the strait is top of mind for American negotiators who Mr. Trump said would travel to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, this week for talks. The stakes for the negotiations, should they happen, are high: failure would risk reigniting the fighting and extending the global economic upheaval wrought by the war.

A White House official said Mr. Vance was expected to lead a U.S. delegation, accompanied by the top Trump aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The negotiations would be the second meeting of high-level officials since the cease-fire went into effect on April 8.

The cease-fire is expected to expire on April 22 and the rhetoric is intensifying as the deadline approaches. Mr. Trump on Sunday renewed threats against Iran’s civilian infrastructure if the strait is not reopened and an extension of the cease-fire is not reached.

“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.”

The last round of negotiations, led last weekend by Mr. Vance in Islamabad, ended without a breakthrough. The meeting had been the highest-level encounter between Iranian and American leaders in decades.

Here’s what else we are covering:

• Pakistan: Pakistan appeared to be readying for a fresh round of talks between the U.S. and Iran, an indication that the talks were likely to go forward even as the two sides sent conflicting public messages. Islamabad, the capital, went on a security lockdown on Sunday night and officials said they would deploy 10,000 extra security forces in the city.

• Lebanon: Thousands of displaced Lebanese families were making their way back home to Lebanon’s south on Sunday soon after a 10-day cease-fire went into effect. The head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said this weekend that the group was willing to cooperate with the Lebanese authorities to end the war with Israel and laid out a series of conditions for a lasting truce.

• Energy Prices: Secretary of Energy Chris Wright acknowledged on Sunday that gasoline prices in the United States had probably peaked but could remain elevated for months, undermining Mr. Trump’s earlier claim that high fuel prices resulting from the war in Iran would be “short-term.”

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ISW…Iran Update Special Report, April 19, 2026

1. Any US settlement or resolution of the conflict that enables Iran to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would represent a major US defeat and set a precedent with critical implications for global trade, given the strait’s role as a critical energy chokepoint. Any US acceptance of Iran’s ability to regulate transit would undermine the principle of freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and enable Iran to condition access to the strait on compliance with its demands, thereby enabling Tehran to exert persistent pressure on the global economy and the United States and its allies.
2. Iran is attempting to establish a protection racket in the Strait of Hormuz by granting priority transit to vessels that pay fees and comply with Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) protocols as part of its effort to try to consolidate control over the strait. Iran has also continued to prevent non-Iranian-linked vessels from transiting the strait.
3. US forces seized an Iranian-flagged container ship for the first time during the war. Commercially available shipping data indicates that the US Navy also forced at least three Iranian or Iranian-linked ships to change course toward Iranian ports on April 19.
4. US Vice President JD Vance, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, to engage in negotiations with Iran on April 21. ISW-CTP has not observed any Iranian sources confirming Iran’s participation in the negotiations as of 6:00 PM ET on April 19, however.
5. Incomplete reporting about the damage that the US-Israeli combined force inflicted on Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs precludes the development of a quantitative assessment about the threat that Iranian missiles and drones still pose.
6. A statement released by Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah on April 18 appears to confirm that IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani discussed preparations for renewed conflict with the United States and Israel during his meetings with Iraqi militia leaders in Baghdad on April 18. Ghaani may have specifically discussed enhancing coordination between Iraqi militias and other Axis of Resistance groups against the United States, Israel, and the Gulf states in the event of renewed conflict.

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The US Navy is reportedly conducting naval mine-clearing operations in the Strait of Hormuz to restore the official transit route through the strait amid the Navy’s continued blockade of Iranian ports. The Wall Street Journal reported on April 19 that the US Navy is using uncrewed surface vessels (USV) and submersible drones to clear an unspecified number of Iranian naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.[18] Clearing Iranian naval mines from the Strait of Hormuz is necessary to restore trust in the safety of the official traffic separation scheme, where Iran has reportedly laid the mines.[19] Military analysts told the Wall Street Journal that US Navy USVs and submersible drones could identify naval mines in the strait relatively quickly and that the US Navy could then deploy a second wave of drones to conduct explosive ordnance disposal operations.[20] Iran deployed a limited number of naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz in March 2026, but a former US Navy official told the Wall Street Journal that Iran laid fewer mines than expected due to US military pressure that constrained Iran’s use of large mine-laying ships.[21]

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Oil Price rise on the weekend Strait US/Iran actions….

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose in early trading Sunday as a standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that is crucial to global energy supplies.

The price of U.S. crude oil increased 6.4% to $87.90 per barrel an hour after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel.

The market reaction followed more than two days of lifted hopes and dashed expectations involving the strait. Crude prices plunged more than 9% Friday after Iran said it would fully reopen the strait, which it effectively controls, to commercial traffic.

Tehran reversed that decision and fired on several vessels Saturday after President Donald Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect. On Sunday, Trump said the U.S. attacked and forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that allegedly tried to get around the blockade. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond….

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