Kumar Bahukhandi
Paramilitary soldiers patrol to ensure security ahead of the second round of talk between the U.S. and Iran, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on April 21, 2026. – Photo Credit: AP
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned of targeting any vessel attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without permission.
President Donald Trump offered mixed messages on Monday April 20, 2026 about the path ahead for the U.S. war against Iran, declaring that he was in no rush to end the conflict while also expressing confidence that further negotiations with Tehran will soon take place in Pakistan.
With the 14-day ceasefire to expire on Wednesday April 22, 2026, Trump whipsawed in telephone interviews and social media posts between measured optimism that a deal could soon be reached and a warning that “lots of bombs” will “start going off” if there’s no agreement before the ceasefire deadline.
Tehran said on Monday April 20, 2026 it had yet to decide on joining a new round of peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, citing “bad faith” and “historical mistrust”,
US Prez Trump indicated that he still expects to dispatch his negotiating team, led by Vice President J.D. Vance, to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad for a second round of talks, even as Iran insisted it would not take part until Trump dialled back his demands.
Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, accused the United States of wanting Iran to surrender and added that on the contrary, Iran has been preparing “to reveal new cards on the battlefield.” “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” Qalibaf wrote in a post on X early Tuesday April 21, 2026
Updates
April 21, 2026 15:37
Israeli strike kills infant girl in south Lebanon, days after father killed
Wrapped in bloodied bandages, Aline Saeed, seven, barely survived the Israeli strike on her home in south Lebanon last week. She was there to pray at her father’s grave as hopes of a truce spread across the region, but a new strike killed her infant sister and other relatives. The strike on the Saeed family home in the village of Srifa took place on Wednesday, the first day of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire that many in Lebanon hoped would apply to their country, too. Instead, Israeli strikes killed more than 350 across Lebanon and left the Saeed family with four more relatives to bury, about 10 days after Aline’s father had been killed in an Israeli strike.
“They said it was a ceasefire. Like all these people, we went up to the village. We went to the casket to read the prayers and walk home… suddenly we felt like a storm was landing right on us,” said Nasser Saeed, Aline’s 64-year-old grandfather, who also survived.
On April 20, 2026, he joined other relatives in the southern port city of Tyre to pick up the bodies wrapped in green cloth. One of them, a fraction the size of the rest, contained his granddaughter Taleen, Aline’s sister.
She had not yet turned two.
With bandages to his head and right hand and scratches on his face, Saeed mourned in silence as the women around him turned their faces up to the sky and screamed in agony.
The Israeli military said that it did not have enough details to look into the incident, adding that it takes measures to reduce harm to civilians in its strikes against Hezbollah militants.
- Reuters
April 21, 2026 15:22
Tanker entered Iranian waters with ‘operational help’ from Iranian Navy, says state media
Iranian Army says an Iranian tanker has entered the country’s territorial waters from the Arabian Sea on Monday April 20, 2026 with operational help from the Iranian Navy, reports Reuters citing the state media.
- Reuters
April 21, 2026 14:30
Iran crisis costs France up to 6 billion euros, says Minister
The economic fallout from the crisis in Iran has cost France between 4 billion euros ($4.70 billion) and 6 billion euros, Finance Minister Roland Lescure said today, as the government prepares new support measures alongside a freeze on some spending.
There has been a sharp rise in bond yields since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, and the subsequent increase in government borrowing costs alone are adding an extra 3.6 billion euros to the budget, Lescure told RTL radio.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s government has pledged to fully offset the budgetary impact of measures aimed at helping households cope with the energy price shock triggered by the conflict.
Lescure said he would outline plans to freeze some spending at a meeting with lawmakers on today, stressing that the government would stop short of outright budget cuts.
-Reuters
April 21, 2026 14:03
Israel says applying diplomatic, military pressure to disarm Hezbollah
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said today that his country’s campaign in Lebanon relied on both military and diplomatic pressure to disarm Iran-allied Hezbollah.
“The overarching goal of the campaign in Lebanon is to disarm Hezbollah and remove the threat to the northern communities (of Israel), through a combination of military and diplomatic measures,” Katz said during a ceremony marking Israel’s national day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terror.
“We will act in the same way with regard to high-trajectory fire (towards Israel) from north of the Litani and from throughout Lebanon”, he added, referring to the Litani river, a natural marker that cuts across southern Lebanon, below which Israel wants no more Hezbollah presence.
-AFP
April 21, 2026 13:28
No delegation from Iran visits Islamabad, state television says, as talks speculation grows
Iranian state television issued an on-screen alert saying that “no delegation from Iran has visited Islamabad… so far” as speculation about possible talks with the United States grows.
The on-screen alert likely reflects the internal debate ongoing within Iran’s theocracy as it weighs how to respond to the U.S. Navy’s seizure of an Iranian container ship over the weekend.
Iranian state TV has long been controlled by hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy.
So far, no official has acknowledged that a delegation will be heading to Islamabad, where officials have been on standby for days now for the possible talks.
- AP
April 21, 2026 13:18
War in Iran is causing biggest energy crisis in history, IEA says
The conflict between Iran and the United States and Israel is creating the worst energy crisis ever faced by the world, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.
“This is indeed the biggest crisis in history,” Birol told France Inter radio in an interview broadcast.
“The crisis is already huge, if you combine the effects of the petrol crisis and the gas crisis with Russia,” he added.
The war in West Asia has choked up maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which is a conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.
It has also come on top of the effects of Russia’s war with Ukraine, which had already severed Russian gas supplies to Europe.
Birol had said earlier this month that he viewed the current situation in global energy markets as worse than previous crises in 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined.
In March, the IEA agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles to combat rising oil prices caused by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
- Reuters
April 21, 2026 12:45
Iran executes man over burning of mosque during January protests, Mizan reports
Iran executed a man, who was accused of being a leader of a network linked to Israel’s intelligence service and of setting fire to a mosque in Tehran during January protests, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan reported.
Mizan identified the man as Amirali Mirjafari, saying he had been convicted of carrying out arson at the Qolhak mosque in Tehran and leading anti-security activities.
His death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and carried out early today, Mizan added.
Iran was rocked by nationwide anti-government protests earlier this year, which were repressed in the biggest crackdown in the Islamic Republic’s history.
- Reuters
April 21, 2026 12:12
U.K. wage growth cools by less than expected in 3 months to February
British wage growth, excluding bonuses, slowed by slightly less than expected to 3.6% in annual terms in the three months to February, the Office for National Statistics said.
Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected regular average weekly earnings growth of 3.5%, down from 3.8% in the previous month.
Until the outbreak of the Iran war at the end of February, the Bank of England had been showing increasing concern about weaker hiring.
But new inflation pressures have emerged, caused by the jump in energy prices due to the war in West Asia, and economists have pushed back their forecasts for when the BoE is likely to resume cutting borrowing costs.
Officials at the central bank say the weak economic backdrop is likely to make it harder for workers to demand bigger pay increases in response to the expected rise in inflation.
- Reuters
April 21, 2026 11:41
U.S. positive on Iran deal but talks still uncertain as ceasefire end nears
The United States expressed confidence that peace talks with Iran would go ahead in Pakistan and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining, but significant hurdles and uncertainty remained as the end of a ceasefire approached.
U.S. President Donald Trump wants an agreement that would prevent further oil price rises and stock markets shocks but has insisted Iran cannot have the means to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran hopes to leverage its control of the Strait of Hormuz to strike a deal that averts a restart of the war, eases sanctions but does not impede its nuclear program.
April 21, 2026 11:38
Scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz, security firm warns
Fraudulent messages promising safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for cryptocurrency have been sent to some shipping companies whose vessels are stranded west of the waterway, Greek maritime risk management firm MARISKS has warned.
The U.S. has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran has lifted and then re-imposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed before war broke out in West Asia.
Amid ceasefire talks, Tehran, which controls the chokepoint, has proposed tolls on vessels to safely transit.
MARISKS on Monday April 20, 2026 issued an alert warning shipowners that unknown actors, claiming to represent Iranian authorities, had sent some shipping companies a message demanding transit fees in cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin or Tether, for “clearance”.
“These specific messages are a scam,” the firm said, adding the message was not sent by Iranian authorities.
- Reuters
April 21, 2026 10:44
More than 20 Iranian ‘shadow vessels’ transit past US blockade
On Tuesday (April 21, 2026), shipping industry intelligence site Lloyd’s List reported that more than 20 Iranian so-called “shadow vessels”, had transited past the U.S. blockade.
The channel in peacetime sees around 120 daily transits, according to the site.
- AFP
