Trump extends ceasefire, claims Iran 'collapsing financially'

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House before departing on Marine One, in Washington, DC, USA, 16 April 2026.(EPA)

The next steps to resume U.S.-Iran talks remained unclear on April 22 after Donald Trump announced the United States was extending its ceasefire in the war at Pakistan’s request while awaiting a “unified proposal” from Tehran.

Iran has not yet responded to Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire extension, and both countries have warned they were prepared to resume fighting if a deal isn’t reached.

Trump said on April 21 night in a social media post that “Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open” so they can sell their crude oil, after earlier saying that the U.S. military would maintain its blockade of Iranian ports.

Meanwhile, Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon traded some fire Tuesday, despite expected talks in Washington this week after a 10-day ceasefire went into effect last Friday.

Since the war started, fighting has killed at least 3,375 people in Iran and more than 2,290 in Lebanon. Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

Trump reposted a photo of six women and two teen girls that a conservative activist said are facing prosecution by the Iranian government.

Iran’s judiciary swiftly responded, saying some of the women have already been released without naming them. It said none of them face the death sentence. Internet restrictions have limited the flow of information out of Iran.

Rights groups say at least two of the other women still in detention are facing charges that carry the death sentence. There have been multiple executions during the war against alleged spies and protesters, mostly accused of links to Israel.

Meanwhile, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards attacked a third ship April 22 in the Strait of Hormuz, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported.

Nour News, Fars and Mehr all reported the attack by the Guards on a vessel called the Euphoria. They said the vessel had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating.

The Guards have seized the other two ships that were attacked, Iranian state television separately reported.

Iranian state television identified the vessels as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas. The ship’s owners could not be immediately reached for comment.

The seizures represent an Iranian escalation after the U.S. earlier seized two Iranian vessels as ceasefire talks were due to take place in Islamabad.

The Guards said in a statement the ships “allegedly operated without authorization, repeatedly violated regulations, manipulated navigational aid systems and sought to covertly exit the Strait of Hormuz, endangering maritime security.”

The strait had been considered an international waterway open to all before the war, even though it sits in Iranian and Omani territorial waters.