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MIDDLE EAST CRISIS LIVE: TRUMP SAYS IRAN TALKS COULD RESUME ‘OVER NEXT TWO DAYS’ AS SANCTIONED SHIPS PASS THROUGH STRAIT OF HORMUZ.

MIDDLE EAST CRISIS LIVE: TRUMP SAYS IRAN TALKS COULD RESUME ‘OVER NEXT TWO DAYS’ AS SANCTIONED SHIPS PASS THROUGH STRAIT OF HORMUZ.

By Guardian-Tom Ambrose/Taz Ali /Adam Fulton -Tue 14 Apr 2026 16.17 BST

Iran-linked vessels pass after start of Trump’s blockade; France and UK to chair talks on Friday. The US blockade of Iranian ports involves more than 10,000 US military personnel, more than a dozen warships and dozens of aircraft, US Central Command said on Tuesday. No ships have made it past the the blockade, while six merchant ships have complied with direction from US forces, it added.

The day so far - 13.48 BST

  • Three Iran-linked tankers have passed through the strait of Hormuz on the first full day of the US blockade of Iranian ports, Reuters has reported, citing shipping data. The news agency reported that the three vessels were not heading to Iranian ports, and so they were not covered by the blockade.
  • UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron will co-host a summit in Paris on Friday focused on efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz, Downing Street said. A spokesperson said: “The summit will advance work towards a coordinated, independent, multinational plan to safeguard international shipping once the conflict ends.”
  • Macron said on Tuesday he had spoken with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and US president Donald Trump on Monday and called for talks to restart between Washington and Iran and for a halt of any possible escalation. He added in a post on social media platform X that the strait of Hormuz must be reopened unconditionally as soon as possible.
  • As the Iranian-linked militia Hezbollah urges Lebanon to pull out of talks with Israel later today, Reuters has some more details, including the news that US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will attend. Talks will be held in Washington at 11am ET (3pm GMT, 4pm BST) between the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, and his Lebanese counterpart, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, officials say.
  • The marine intelligence platform Windward has detected a “new potential blockade breaker” in the strait of Hormuz. In a post on X, Windward said a Comoros-flagged bulk carrier has appeared in the waterway after being “dark” – had its communications turned off to hide its exact location – since the start of the war on 28 February.
  • International humanitarian groups said they had sent emergency relief through overland routes to Iran, some of their first deliveries of aid since US-Israeli strikes began in late February. Aid workers say needs are high in the wake of six weeks of strikes, but stocks of emergency humanitarian supplies became stuck in Dubai warehouses as shipping and air routes were blocked by the expanding conflict.
  • The Egyptian foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, is heading to Washington to meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. Egypt joined Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to form a four-nation bloc that seeks to de-escalate the US-Israel war on Iran.
  • The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, announced she was suspending Italy’s defence agreement with Israel. “In light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” she said on the sidelines of an event in Verona, according to Italy’s Ansa news agency, without giving further details.
  • The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects the steepest quarterly decline in demand for crude oil since the Covid-19 pandemic slashed fuel consumption. The IEA noted that its forecasts assume a “base case” of oil shipments resuming in May through the strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed since the start of the war on 28 February.
  • The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves has said she was “very frustrated and angry” over what she said was the United States’ failure to have a clear exit plan or objectives for the war in Iran, according to the Mirror newspaper. “This is a war that we did not start. It was a war that we did not want. I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve,” the British finance minister told the newspaper.
  • China said it will impose “countermeasures” after Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on its goods entering the US if Beijing provided military assistance to Iran. “If the US insists on using this as an excuse to impose additional tariffs on China, China will definitely take resolute countermeasures,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a news conference, according to AFP news agency.

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