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Hours after Trump’s unilateral announcement, as Tehran decided not to join the second round of talks in Islamabad, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the Revolutionary Guards had seized two vessels for maritime violations and escorted them to Iranian shores. It is the first time Iran has seized ships since the war began at the end of February.

The Revolutionary Guards also warned that any disruption to order and safety in the strait would be considered a “red line”, Tasnim said.

In a show of defiance, Iran also showcased some of its ballistic weapons at a parade in Tehran on Tuesday evening, with images on state TV showing large crowds waving Iranian flags and a banner in the background with a fist choking off the strait.

Captions read: “Indefinitely under Iran’s Control” and “Trump could not do a damn thing”, referring to the waterway.

Pakistan, which has acted as a mediator, was still trying to bring the sides together for negotiations after both failed to show up for last-ditch talks on Tuesday before the two-week-old ceasefire had been due to expire.

“We were all prepared for the talks, the stage was set,” a Pakistani official briefed on the preparations told Reuters. “If you ask me honestly, it was a setback we were not expecting, because the Iranians never refused, they were up to come and join, and they still are.”

Despite the latest series of attacks on maritime traffic in the Gulf, a second round of US-Iran talks could take place within the next three days, the New York Post reported, citing Trump and unnamed Pakistani sources.

“It’s possible!” Trump reportedly wrote to the Post in a text message when asked about the sources in Pakistan, who had told the newspaper that a second round could happen within two to three days.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yesterday accused the US of breaching commitments by continuing its blockade of Iranian ports.

“[The] world sees your endless hypocritical rhetoric and contradiction between claims and actions,” he said, one day after Trump’s ceasefire extension.

Throughout the war, Iran has effectively shut the strait to ships other than its own by attacking vessels that attempt to transit without its permission. Around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes through the waterway.

The Revolutionary Guards accused the seized ships, the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and Liberia-flagged Epaminondas, of operating without required permits and tampering with their navigation systems.

The Greek-operated Epaminondas reported being fired upon about 20 nautical miles off Oman. It said it had sustained damage to its bridge after being hit by gunfire and that no one was hurt in the incident.

Greece and the company have not confirmed the seizure of the vessel. MSC, the world’s biggest container shipping group, did not respond to a Reuters request for immediate comment.

A third, Liberia-flagged container ship was fired upon in the same area but was not damaged and had resumed sailing, according to maritime security sources.

With his announcement on Tuesday, Trump again pulled back at the last moment from warnings to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges, a threat condemned by the United Nations and others as potentially constituting war crimes. Iran had said it would strike its Arab neighbours if its civilian infrastructure was hit.

Meanwhile, China yesterday warned that the situation in the Middle East was at a “critical juncture”.

“The current regional situation stands at a critical juncture transitioning between war and peace; the paramount priority remains to make every effort to prevent a resumption of hostilities,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news briefing.

Guo did not comment directly on the ceasefire when asked about it, adding only that Beijing would continue to play a “constructive” role.

Recent estimates indicate that China accounted for roughly 90 per cent of Iran’s oil exports before the conflict escalated.

Oil prices reversed course to head higher after yesterday’s shipping incidents, with Brent crude futures LCOc1 up around 2.5 per cent to $101 a barrel.

Asian countries are the primary recipients of the roughly 20 percent of oil and over 30% of global fertiliser trade passing through the Strait of Hormuz, with China, India, Japan, and South Korea being the largest importers.

In 2025, about 20 million barrels of oil and oil products passed through the strait per day, according to estimates from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). That is nearly $600b (£447b) worth of energy trade per year.

The oil comes not only from Iran but also from other Gulf states such as Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

About 20 percent of global LNG is also shipped through the strait, mostly from Qatar.

About 3,000 ships usually sailed through the strait each month before the conflict.