“US Israel Iran War”

Hours before a two-week ceasefire with Iran was set to end this week, President Trump announced its extension, claiming a power struggle in Tehran was impeding its ability to negotiate.

Pakistan had requested the extension, he claimed on Truth Social, “based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured”. An anonymous American official put it more bluntly to an Israeli journalist for Axios. Trump was giving the Iranians a few more days “to get their shit together”, the official said.

Most people in America are against the war with Iran, as they are in Britain, too.

Very few, however, actually understand why this war is as necessary as it is unavoidably complex.

Few seem aware that Iran has been actively at war against America for the past 47 years. Few seem to grasp that Iran’s fanatical Islamic regime has killed hundreds of U.S. servicemen, perpetrated numerous attacks on U.S. bases, committed countless terrorist atrocities and taken Americans hostage.

…In reality, Iran is not consolidating strength; it is managing decline. And Trump’s play on the Strait of Hormuz has quietly forced energy markets to reprice security—tilting the balance decisively toward the Americas, and away from Europe, Asia and China.

The Islamic Republic no longer resembles a confident revolutionary project.

WASHINGTON — Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t released an audio or video message since assuming power because his face was badly burned in Israeli airstrikes on Feb, 28, according to a report — as President Trump says peace talks are inhibited by a lack of clear leadership in Tehran.

Khamenei, 56, “does not want to appear vulnerable or sound weak,” four Iranian officials told the New York Times, adding that one of the ayatollah’s legs has been “operated on three times, and he is awaiting a prosthetic,” while he also has had surgery on one of his hands.

I was on active duty in the Navy in 1979 when the mullahs replaced the Shah and started their special Islamic revolution. I never served in Vietnam but was stationed with a number of veterans of that war, and was surprised when so many of them started repeating what became almost a chant in our unit: “Nuke them, nuke them. Nuke them ‘til the sands turn to glass.” I was working in a big hospital, and the chanters were mainly doctors and corpsmen. They were, as we might say nowadays, kidding, not kidding.

US forces have interdicted a sanctioned vessel that is transporting oil from Iran, the country’s defence department has posted on X.

“US forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean,” the statement says.

Footage of US Navy forces interdicting a vessel attempting to run the blockade of Iran. pic.twitter.com/YV2Ld9w23A

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 16, 2026

A joke making the rounds in Iran is that the Israeli airstrike that killed Ayatollah Khamenei at the start of war merely made him decades younger.

His son and successor Mojtaba, observers say, is a more radical version of the father, and wants revenge. President Trump had recently been insistent that he achieved “regime change” in Iran, heralding “much more rational” leaders with whom US negotiators could talk. For all he has said, the “great deal” Trump expected to extract this week from the rational regime has failed to materialise, forcing an extension of the ceasefire.

Iranian state media has reportedly signaled readiness for a potential resumption of war with the United States, amid uncertainty over whether Iran will be able to agree on a unified proposal. This comes even after being granted an additional three to five days under the ceasefire, as hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members clash with Iranian government officials over whether to concede to American demands or go down fighting.

Iran’s navy said it has seized two cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz and taken them to the country’s coast after reports that three vessels came under fire from Iranian forces.

Nour News, a website affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) opened fire on the first ship, the Epaminodes, after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces”.

A second ship, named Euphoria, was then stopped after being “fired upon”, followed by the targeting of a third vessel, the MSC-Francesca, according to BBC Verify.

BREAKING: Three separate ships were reportedly attacked in the Strait of Hormuz during what was supposed to be a ceasefire with Iran.

"The third cargo ship, the most recent, reportedly has been attacked while attempting to transit the strait. It may have a Panama flag on it."… pic.twitter.com/AVeQTRMKRX

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) April 22, 2026

The build-up to peace talks between Iran and the US in Pakistan has already seen false starts. President Trump prematurely announced a deal would be signed, while Iran denied it would even send anyone to Islamabad.

The White House set high expectations, saying on Monday that a “good deal” was to be reached, while Iran poured cold water on American optimism and insisted it would not negotiate at all while under naval blockade.

But with the ceasefire set to expire on Tuesday night, both sides will most probably travel to Pakistan to agree, at a minimum, an extension of the truce, even though Trump has ruled it out without a framework agreement before a deal.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the Iranian armed forces, has blocked President Masoud Pezeshkian’s presidential appointments and erected what sources described as a security cordon around Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, a report published Tuesday by Iran International said.

The IRGC effectively has assumed control over key state functions, the report claimed.

NEW: The U.S. is STILL awaiting confirmation about whether or not Iran will attend peace talks in Pakistan as the hours tick down on the ceasefire. @MattFinnFNC reports on the latest. | @AmericaRpts pic.twitter.com/QcrbH7R3gG

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 21, 2026

While the world’s attention has been focused on diplomatic efforts to end the Iran war, the Iranian regime — whatever is left of it, that is — has been busy doing what it does best: brutalising its own people.

At the same time that the Trump administration has been repeatedly offering Tehran the possibility of a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, the Islamic hardliners still running the country are seeking to reassert their stranglehold over the Iranian people by embarking on a fresh round of executions.

President Donald Trump said in a new interview that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States and Iran reach a peace deal to end the ongoing war.

The two nations are set to begin a second round of peace deal talks this week in Islamabad, Pakistan, as a two-week ceasefire is expected to expire.

WATCH IN FULL: President Trump's interview on CNBC. pic.twitter.com/pPzI2iImSe

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 21, 2026

Both the president and vice president have thrown out the term “grand bargain” in recent days to describe their aspirations for a deal with the Iranian rump regime.

It’s a term fraught with past failures that screams Iranian deception, not the interests of America First.

Bill Clinton was the first to use the phrase toward the end of his second term to describe his aspiration to end a low-intensity conflict that had been simmering for 20 years.

When a ceasefire in the Gulf was first being discussed, an Iranian military spokesman accused President Trump of “negotiating with himself”.

The regime loves pouring scorn on America, calling its politics stupid and unsophisticated. But the comment rang true to more than just the Iranians.

President Trump’s rhetoric, especially on his personal platform Truth Social, often seems to take issue with his own policies.