Kanal13Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency posted a video on Thursday showing the MSC Francesca and Epaminondas vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Associated Press the two ships were attacked in April 22 by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and were taken into Iranian waters. This comes as Iran said it was reviewing the latest American proposals to end the war after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened the country with a new wave of bombing unless a deal is reached that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping. Iran has established a new government agency to approve transit and collect tolls from shipping in the strait, shipping data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said Thursday.
Tehran has effectively shut the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of supplies of oil, gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products, while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports. Hope that the two-month conflict could soon end buoyed international markets on Thursday, even as the U.S. military fired on an Iranian oil tanker attempting to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports hours earlier.
The developments followed days of mixed messaging from the Trump administration over its strategy to end the war. Trump posted on social media that the two-month war could soon end and that oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict could restart. But he said that depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that he did not detail. “If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.
