IRGC targets container ships in Strait of Hormuz as US maintains naval blockade on Iranian vessels

Many questions remain regarding the status of the Iran ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a late extension just hours before the ceasefire was set to expire, after Iran failed to confirm its presence at negotiations in Pakistan. 

The White House later explained that it extended the ceasefire at the request of Pakistan, which hosted the first round of talks, and was set to host the second round on Tuesday, which was later pushed back indefinitely by President Trump. 

On Wednesday evening, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied reports in Israeli media that President Trump had given Iran until Sunday to offer a negotiating position. 

“The president has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal, unlike some of the reporting we’ve seen today,” Leavitt said, while also acknowledging “a lot of internal division” within the regime. 

The White House said it is waiting for Iran to present a “unified” position, saying that the regime government remains fractured following the U.S. and Israeli decapitation strikes against Iran, which have caused a lack of clear governance hierarchy and led to different officials contradicting each other, even in public statements. 

Roughly a week ago, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which was rebutted within hours by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its commander, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi. 

Tasnim News, the Iranian news agency affiliated with the IRGC, even posted messages to its 𝕏 account attacking Araghchi for making such a statement. 

A U.S. official told Axios, “We saw that there is an absolute fracture inside Iran between the negotiators and the military – with neither side having access to the supreme leader, who is not responsive.” 

Vice President JD Vance previously indicated that the reason the U.S. abandoned the first round of talks was not so much the intransigence of the Iranian regime, but rather that the negotiating team had no authority to make decisions. 

U.S. and Israeli officials assess that the IRGC is the group running the country at present, and Gen. Vahidi represents a hardline position within that group. 

The IRGC is demanding a lifting of the U.S. blockade on ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz to or from Iran, which the U.S. is unwilling to do. 

After the U.S. negotiating team did not depart for Islamabad, Pakistan, a U.S. official told Axios that Washington has decided to give Iran time to reach a unified position. 

“The degree of the fracture became clear in the last few days, and the question was: does it make any sense to go to Islamabad like that?” the official said. “So the decision was to give the diplomatic efforts a little bit more time.” 

In the meantime, the U.S. continues to operate the blockade on Iranian ships in the strait, with U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) saying Wednesday evening that it has redirected 29 vessels away from the waterway as par of the blockade. 

U.S. forces have directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the U.S. blockade against Iran.

Over past 24 hours, media reports have alleged that several commercial ships evaded the blockade, citing M/V Hero II, M/V Hedy, and M/V Dorena as examples. These… pic.twitter.com/SKelkSOr77

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 22, 2026

In response to the U.S. maintaining the blockade, IRGC gunboats targeted three container ships on Wednesday, with the regime militia later releasing video of the seizure of one of the vessels. 

Iran's IRGC Navy has released footage of its forces seizing a pair of container ships in the Strait of Hormuz this morning. pic.twitter.com/hAbmTTe8DR

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 22, 2026

Various Iranian officials have said that the country will not resume negotiations with the U.S. as long as the blockade remains in effect, with some calling it a “flagrant breach of the ceasefire.” 

During a classified briefing at the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, the Pentagon said efforts to de-mine the waterway could take six months. 

At the same time, after President Trump posted a message thanking the Iranian regime for not hanging several protesters from the anti-regime protests which preceded the war, the Iranian regime denied that it is halting the executions. 

“Very good news! I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social account on Tuesday. “Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison.” 

“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution,” he wrote. 

However, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website refuted Trump’s claim shortly after, posting to social media, and accusing the president of lying. 

“Despite the claim from last night being exposed as a lie, Trump, just minutes ago in another post, claimed that the death sentences of eight protesting women who were supposed to be executed tonight in Iran have been cancelled, and thanked Iran!,” the post said. 

“Trump’s empty hand in the field has led him to fabricate achievements from false news,” it added. 

On Wednesday, Iran hanged a former employee of the Iranian atomic energy organization for alleged connections with Israel’s Mossad spy agency. 

Mehdi Farid was arrested in 2023, and initially sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, following the June 2025 Operation Rising Lion, he was put on trial a second time and sentenced to death by hanging. 

Iran executed a man on Wednesday after the country’s judiciary alleged that he had “extensive cooperation” with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, judiciary-affiliated Mizan News reported.

Mehdi Farid was “a manager in the civil defense committee of one of the country’s… pic.twitter.com/RSRekg2PXz

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 22, 2026

The regime executed another man Thursday morning, with Mizan Online claiming he had links to both the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq and Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. He was identified as Soltanali Shirzadi Fakhr. 

Alongside the blockade, the Pentagon said it continues efforts to de-mine the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, which were placed by the IRGC during the Iran war.