Trump sends delegation to Pakistan as Iran tensions rise after ship seizure

Washington is trying to reopen talks with Tehran while its Navy tightens pressure in the Strait of Hormuz, a move that risks turning diplomacy into a test of force. President Donald Trump said a U.S. delegation would travel to Pakistan for another round of negotiations with Iran, but the seizure of the Iranian-flagged cargo ship Touska has given Tehran fresh reason to doubt whether the talks are a path to compromise or a cover for coercion.

Trump said the USS Spruance intercepted the vessel and fired after warning it to stop, before Marines boarded and took custody of the ship. The seizure took place near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries a large share of the world’s oil and gas traffic and remains one of the most strategically sensitive shipping chokepoints on the globe.

The timing sharpened the contradiction at the center of U.S. policy. U.S. officials said Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were expected to travel to Islamabad for the next round of talks. Iranian officials, however, said as of Monday they had no plans to participate and insisted that lifting the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports was a precondition for any negotiation.

Tehran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed if the blockade was not lifted. Iranian officials also described the atmosphere as “not very positive” and said Washington’s demands were “unreasonable and unrealistic,” a sign that the seizure may have hardened positions just as the Trump administration was trying to assemble a negotiating track.

The episode was the first known U.S. interception of an Iranian-flagged vessel during the war, adding a new layer of risk to an already volatile standoff. Commercial shipping data showed at least three other Iranian or Iranian-linked ships were forced to change course toward Iranian ports on April 19, a sign that pressure on maritime traffic was already spreading before the latest seizure.

That broader disruption matters well beyond the immediate military encounter. If Iran keeps its threat to close the strait and Washington maintains its maritime pressure, the result could be fewer shipments, higher energy costs and a harder line in Islamabad. For now, the question is whether the vessel seizure gives the United States leverage at the negotiating table or makes that table harder to reach at all.