Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two foreign ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to a semiofficial state news agency, a major escalation coming just hours after President Donald Trump announced he was extending a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
The state-linked Tasnim News Agency said that the captured vessels were “operating without authorization, repeatedly violating regulations, and manipulating navigation aid systems in a way that endangered maritime safety.” The vessels are now in Iranian territorial waters, Tasnim reported.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt played down the implications in a Fox News interview on Wednesday, insisting that the seizures did not constitute a violation of the ceasefire.
“These were not U.S. ships,” she said. “These were not Israeli ships. These were two international vessels. And for the American media who is sort of blowing this out of proportion to discredit the president’s facts — that he has completely obliterated Iran’s conventional Navy — these two ships were taken by speedy gunboats. Iran has gone from having the most lethal Navy in the Middle East to now acting like a bunch of pirates.”
