Zero Hedge
Summary
- Trump renews threats if no deal is reached: “No More Mr. Nice Guy”
- Trump says U.S. struck and seized Iranian-flagged cargo ship in Gulf of Oman
- Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt after multiple incidents (Iran renewed threats to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait)
- Vance to lead negotiations with Iran, along with Witkoff and Kushner, on Tuesday or Wednesday
- “We are still far from the final discussion,” said speaker of the Iranian parliament Ghalibaf
US Struck and Seized Iranian-flagged Cargo Ship on Gulf Of Oman
With markets still closed for now, President Trump just posted on his Truth Social platform that the US military just struck and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman.
Today, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA, nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our Naval Blockade, and it did not go well for them.
The U.S. Navy Guided Missile Destroyer USS SPRUANCE intercepted the TOUSKA in the Gulf of Oman, and gave them fair warning to stop.
The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom.
Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel.
The TOUSKA is under U.S. Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity.
We have full custody of the ship, and are seeing what’s on board!
According to CENTCOM, American forces issued multiple warnings and informed the Iranian-flagged vessel it was in violation of the U.S. blockade.
After Touska’s crew failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period, Spruance directed the vessel to evacuate its engine room.
Spruance disabled Touska’s propulsion by firing several rounds from the destroyer’s 5-inch MK 45 Gun into Touska’s engine room.
U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit later boarded the non-compliant vessel, which remains in U.S. custody.
American forces acted in a deliberate, professional, and proportional manner to ensure compliance.
Since the blockade’s commencement, U.S. forces have directed 25 commercial vessels to turn around or return to an Iranian port.
Now we wait and see the reaction as futures open and the vocal (and kinetic) action is wound back in.
Record highs in stocks provides just the kind of backdrop for Trump to press his ‘escalated to de-escalate’ strategy into the end of the ceasefire.
Tanker Traffic Through Strait Halted
By Sunday morning, the latest Bloomberg ship tracking data showed that tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had largely ground to a halt.
There were multiple incidents of tankers U-turning over the last 24 hours.
At the same time, a senior Iranian official renewed threats to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The Hormuz chokepoint (closed once again after briefly opening on Friday morning) comes as the US blockade of Iranian ports remains in place and US-Iran diplomatic channels appear active..
The odds of shipping traffic returning to normal on the Hormuz by the end of the month are currently around 28% on Polymarket. Those odds just hours ago, early Sunday, stood around 18%.
[…]
Vance to Lead Negotiations with Iran
President Trump told Fox News that special envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to Pakistan for talks with Iranian negotiators, suggesting the Trump team and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are still pursuing a negotiated off-ramp.
Separately, Trump wrote on Truth Social that his representatives “will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations.”
The meetings in Islamabad will be “Tuesday possibly into Wednesday,” Trump told Fox News in a call Sunday morning, the outlet reported.
Yet Iranian state media reported Sunday that Tehran had “rejected” the second round of talks.
Iran’s “absence” from the talks, the report said, was a result of “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire.”
Confirmation of another round of upcoming US-Iran talks comes one day after Iran shuttered the Hormuz, citing the US Naval blockade that remains in place.
Overnight, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, admitted on national television that there had been “progress” with Washington, but that there were many gaps and some fundamental points remained.
“We are still far from the final discussion,” said Ghalibaf, one of Tehran’s top negotiators.
Ghalibaf continued, “If America does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be limited.”
Trump has accused Tehran of getting “a little cute” with its flip-flopping on the strait that was reopened on Friday but abruptly closed on Saturday morning.
The ceasefire is set to expire Wednesday.
Trump Renews Threats: “No More Mr. Nice Guy”
Trump also renewed threats made earlier this month to “knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran” if no deal is reached, warning that “they’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy.”
[…]
The Most Revolutionary Act 
The Orange Infidel is still trying to turn all this crap on Iran when we all know that it is the zionists who are dictating to the US of Israel and it is them who are doing all the “flip-flopping” and deliberately stopping any joint agreement being reached! And, once again, Trump is going to send the Netanyahu pimps, Witkoff and Kushner plus the fake Cuban tosser, Rubio to Islamabad to insult the Iranians once again with their idiotic and totally unacceptable demands.
Should the JooSA still seek Irans compliance with their moronic demands, the Iranians must launch an all out attack on the Yank ships and sink a number of them as an indication of their displeasure!
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