Reported Seizure of Ships Injects New Uncertainty Over Peace Talks.

Mourners as a flatbed truck arrives carrying 12 coffins during a mass funeral in the southern Lebanese village of Aytit, on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. Families gathered for the funeral of 12 people who were killed in recent weeks but could not be brought to their home village during the fighting. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)

By LYNSEY CHUTEL, LEO SANDS, JONATHAN SWAN, SANAM MAHOOZI and MAX BEARAK

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had seized two cargo ships Wednesday near the contested Strait of Hormuz, Iranian news media reported, adding uncertainty to a ceasefire President Donald Trump extended Tuesday hours before it would have expired.

The reported attacks — which come as the U.S. Navy has prevented dozens of ships from accessing Iranian ports — showed that despite efforts to turn the pause in direct hostilities into a lasting peace, neither Iran nor the United States was shying away from trying to exert control over movement in and around the strategic waterway.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, downplayed the Iranian ship seizures Wednesday, telling Fox News that Trump did not view those actions as a violation of the ceasefire. Her comments seemed to indicate that Iran’s actions were not a deal-breaker as efforts to revive peace talks continued. “These were not U.S. ships. These were not Israeli ships,” she said.

Iranian news media reported that the Guard had targeted the two cargo vessels, the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas, a Greek-owned ship, because they had not abided by Iran’s recently imposed rules for passing through the strait, which include permits for preapproved routes.

MSC, a global shipping company based in Geneva, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Greece’s foreign minister said that the Greek-owned ship had sustained “extremely wide damage.” Tracking data suggested that both ships were now anchored around 8 miles off the Iranian coast.

Several Iranian news media outlets had reported earlier that the Guard had fired on a third cargo ship, the Euphoria. Tracking data showed the ship stopping multiple times and changing directions abruptly as it passed through the strait.

There was no clear indication Wednesday that either the U.S. or Iran was willing to back down from their public hard-line stances on the strait or other issues that divide them, creating what amounted to a deadlock over the conditions for a new round of peace talks.

Here’s what else we are covering:

— War powers vote: For a fifth time, the U.S. Senate will vote Wednesday afternoon on a resolution to enforce Congress’ war powers, with Democrats once again pushing Republicans to join their effort to constrain Trump’s war on Iran. A decades-old law allows the president to wage war without congressional approval for 60 days; that window would expire May 1.

— Iran border crossing: After entering Turkey, Iranians belonging to different political persuasions and from parts of the country told The New York Times that they were fleeing a deepening economic crisis at home.

— Iraq: The United States, in part of a vigorous pressure campaign on the government in Baghdad to distance itself from Iran, halted dollar shipments to the country in a move that could hobble its cash-based economy.

— Lebanon: An exchange of attacks along the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday put pressure on the countries’ already tenuous truce.