WASHINGTON/DUBAI/ISLAMABAD — Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz as it tightened its grip on the strategic waterway after US President Donald Trump announced he was indefinitely calling off attacks, with no sign of peace talks restarting.

The status of a two-week-old ceasefire, due to have expired earlier this week, remained unclear. In a sharp about-face hours after threatening renewed violence, Mr. Trump made what appeared to be a unilateral announcement on Tuesday that the US would extend a ceasefire until it had discussed an Iranian proposal in peace talks to end the two-month-old war.

But Iranian officials did not say they had agreed to any extension of the truce, and criticized Mr. Trump’s decision to maintain the US Navy blockade of Iran’s trade by sea, itself considered by Iran an act of war. Iran’s parliament speaker and lead negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said a full ceasefire only made sense if the blockade was lifted.

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the slender chokepoint that carried a fifth of the world’s oil trade before the war, was impossible with such a “flagrant breach of the ceasefire,” Mr. Qalibaf said on social media.

“You did not achieve your goals through military aggression and you will not achieve them by bullying either,” he wrote in his first response to Mr. Trump’s announcement. “The only way is recognizing the Iranian people’s rights.”

In another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The move came just weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general.

The Pentagon said Mr. Phelan was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go.

Mr. Trump has again backed away from his repeated threats to bomb Iran’s power plants and other civilian infrastructure, which the United Nations and others warn would violate international humanitarian law. But little progress has been made in ending the war that started with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.

That leaves the two sides in a holding pattern with the crucial Strait of Hormuz still effectively shut, straining economies across the world. Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, where the Iran-allied Hezbollah militant group joined the fighting against Israel.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two vessels and escorted them to Iranian shores, according to statements by the shipping companies and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

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

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.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News that since the ships were not US or Israeli vessels the seizure was not a violation of the ceasefire. She called it an act of “piracy”.

The US military said on Wednesday it had so far directed more than 30 ships to turn around or return to port as part of the US blockade against Iran. Far beyond the Gulf, the US military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters, sources said, redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Brent, the international crude oil benchmark, remained above $100 a barrel in Asian trade on Thursday, having hit triple figures a day earlier for the first time in two weeks.

NO NEW DEADLINE FOR CEASEFIRE
In his Tuesday announcement, Mr. Trump said that the US had agreed to a request by Pakistani mediators “to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal … and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.”

He has not set any deadline for the proposal or discussions, Ms. Leavitt told reporters.

Pakistan, which has acted as a mediator, was still trying to bring the sides together after both failed to show up for tentatively scheduled talks in Islamabad on Tuesday before the two-week-old ceasefire was due to expire.

A first session of peace talks between Iran and the US in Islamabad 11 days ago produced no agreement.

Mr. Trump wants Iran to give up highly enriched uranium and forgo further enrichment to prevent it building a nuclear weapon. Iran says it has only a peaceful civilian nuclear program, and wants the lifting of sanctions, reparations for damage and recognition of its control over the strait.

Iran has also made a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group a condition of truce talks. On Wednesday, Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least five people, including the Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil.

It was the deadliest day since a 10-day ceasefire was announced on April 16 between Israel and Lebanon.

Iran executed a man convicted of links to both an exiled opposition group and Israel’s intelligence service, Iranian media reported on Thursday. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — US Senate Republicans voted on Thursday to advance a $70 billion plan to fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agencies for the next three years, ignoring demands from Democrats for guardrails on immigration enforcement agents and their operations.

Lawmakers voted 50-48 in the predawn hours to adopt the non-binding budget resolution and send it to the US House of Representatives, taking a crucial step forward in their effort to end a partial shutdown that has gripped the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since mid-February.

Two Republicans – Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski – opposed the measure.

If adopted by the House, the resolution will allow congressional committees to begin filling in the details on how the $70 billion would be spent in separate legislation that President Donald Trump would have to sign into law. The new funding would be expected to run through Mr. Trump’s presidency, which ends in January 2029.

With Democrats adamantly opposed to the funding initiative, Republicans plan to employ a rarely used procedure known as budget reconciliation in the separate legislation, which allows some budget-related bills to bypass Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Such measures require only a simple majority for passage in the 100-member chamber, instead of the usual supermajority of 60 votes or more. Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority.

Funding for most of DHS ran out more than nine weeks ago, as Democrats pressed Republicans and the White House to accept new constraints on ICE and Border Patrol, which operate under the direction of DHS.

After two US citizens were fatally shot by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis, Democrats insisted that ICE and Border Patrol be subject to the same operational rules as police forces across the United States, including a requirement that judicial warrants be obtained before agents can enter private homes.

But weeks of negotiations ended in a stalemate.

The Senate has since passed legislation to fund DHS operations other than ICE and Border Patrol. But the measure has stalled in the House, where hardline Republicans have demanded funding for those two entities as well.

‘VOTE-A-RAMA’ LASTED NEARLY SIX HOURS
Last year, Republicans passed legislation providing around $130 billion in funding for these two agencies, separate from their annual appropriations and the $70 billion now being advanced in Congress.

The Senate action followed a nearly six-hour “vote-a-rama” session that began late on Wednesday, with votes on a series of proposed amendments.

Eight months before the November midterm elections, which will determine which party controls Congress in the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency, Democrats sought to use the session to portray Republicans as out of step with American families and the challenges they face from soaring gasoline prices and healthcare costs.

Republicans accused Democrats of wanting to “defund” crucial immigration and border security operations.

Democrats offered a dozen amendments intended to lower out-of-pocket healthcare costs, restore food assistance for lower-income Americans, prevent the cancellation of health insurance coverage, increase funding for school meals and childcare, protect consumers from rising prices driven by tariffs and the war in Iran, and lower electricity costs for working people.

All failed but drew support from some Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who face challenging re-election bids in November.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that more than half of Americans are less likely to support candidates who back Mr. Trump’s approach to deporting immigrants, while a similar majority say their household finances have taken a hit from soaring gasoline prices.

Healthcare tops the list of household costs that voters think Congress should focus on most, polling data shows.

The Senate voted 98-0 to adopt a Republican amendment from Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham that would establish a deficit-neutral fund supporting ICE operations to apprehend, detain and expedite the deportation of adults convicted of rape, murder or sexual abuse of a minor after entering the United States illegally.

Lawmakers rejected other Republican amendments calling for legislation to require proof of citizenship in voting and other election restrictions, a ban on Medicaid funding for transgender surgery on minors, and cuts in foreign aid, science and education programs to pay for the ICE and Border Patrol funding. — Reuters