Middle East crisis live: Trump unilaterally extends ceasefire; US navy continues blockade of Iranian ports

Donald Trump convened his core national security team at the White House on Tuesday afternoon to discuss a path forward on Iran and what to do about their failure to confirm participation in more negotiations, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The meeting was attended by JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, joint chiefs chairman Dan Caine, CIA director John Ratcliffe, as well as special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who both flew in from Florida to attend in person. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was not included.

Ultimately, Trump and his team decided in the meeting that they would keep up the pressure on Iran by maintaining the blockade – reducing Iran’s perceived leverage after they closed the strait – to either offer terms that could (1) lead to more talks or (2) lead to strikes, the people said.

Donald Trump is considering extending the Jones Act waiver, which allows foreign-flagged cargo ships to move fuel and other goods between domestic ports, Axios has reported, citing US officials.

Trump waived Jones Act limitations for 60 days starting 17 March, hoping the move would help tame the surge in fuel prices caused by the Iran war by increasing shipments from the US Gulf Coast to other coastal markets in the country.

Since the war started, fighting has killed at least 3,375 people in Iran and more than 2,290 in Lebanon, the Associated Press reports. Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 US service members throughout the region have been killed.

The world’s top condom producer, Malaysia’s Karex Bhd, plans to raise prices by 20% to 30% and possibly further if supply chain disruptions drag on due to the Iran war, its chief executive has said.

Karex is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual, CEO Goh Miah Kiat told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

The condom maker joins a growing list of companies, including medical glove makers, bracing for supply chain bottlenecks as the Iran war strains energy and petrochemical flows from the Middle East, disrupting procurement of raw materials.

Since the conflict began in late February, Karex has seen costs increase for everything from synthetic rubber and nitrile used in manufacturing condoms to packaging materials and lubricants such as aluminium foils and silicone oil, Goh said.

The US has failed to bomb Iran into submission. Now, from the strait of Hormuz to nuclear concessions, Tehran senses its position strengthening, writes Sina Toossi.

Our picture desk has noted these images from the Middle East coming in today.

Bessent’s statement about the blockade seems to somewhat contradict what Iran’s envoy to the UN said on Tuesday: that Tehran has “received some sign” that the US is ready to stop its blockade of Iranian ports.

Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said that ending the blockade remains a condition for Iran to rejoin peace talks. He said when that happens, “I think the next round of the negotiations will take place”.

The US imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the strait of Hormuz.

Taking another look at the continuing US Navy blockade of Iranian ports, about two hours ago the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, posted this statement on X:

In a matter of days, Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in. Constraining Iran’s maritime trade directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines.

Bessent said the US Treasury “will continue to apply maximum pressure through Economic Fury to systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds”.

He warned that any person or vessel facilitating these flows, through covert trade and finance, risked “exposure to US sanctions”.

Britain will host military planners from over 30 countries for two days of talks starting Wednesday on a multinational mission led by the UK and France to protect navigation in the strait of Hormuz, the defence ministry said.

The ministry said the meeting would “advance detailed planning” on reopening the strait when conditions allow, following “progress” at talks in Paris last week.

“The task today and tomorrow is to translate diplomatic consensus into a joint plan to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Strait and support a lasting ceasefire,” the defence minister, John Healey, said in a statement.

He said he was confident “real progress can be made”.

Looking back on Wall Street trading today, the S+P 500 erased an early rise to fall 0.6% after the JD Vance called off his trip to Pakistan for negotiations with Iran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 293 points, or 0.6%, after erasing an earlier gain of 400 points, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.6%.

The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, will be part of the US delegation for upcoming direct talks between Israel and Lebanon, CNN is reporting.

Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold fresh talks in Washington on Thursday, a state department official told Agence France-Presse.

A 10-day ceasefire was agreed between the two nations on Friday; it included Hezbollah.

Illustrating the butterfly effect of the strait of Hormuz closure, the Iran war has boosted demand to move vital cargo through the Panama canal to such an extent that one vessel carrying liquefied natural gas (LNGpaid $4m to skip the line and avoid a wait that can take up to five days, according to an official report.

A surge in such payments has been recorded since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began 28 February. To meet fuel demand, Asia’s refineries are choosing to buy oil or gas from the US and ship it through the transoceanic waterway instead of purchasing from Gulf countries who rely on the strait of Hormuz, according to reports from the Panama Canal Authority.

Ships transiting the canal book their passage well in advance, and ships without bookings wait an average of five days to get through, but there is an auction where last-minute transits can be purchased.

The most recent auction included a $4m bid for an LNG vessel, and in recent weeks two oil tankers exceeded bids of $3m, the authority said.

Past average auction prices between October and February stood at around $130,000, and rose to $385,000 in March and April.

We’ll watch oil price movements, and how markets across Asia, due to open over the next couple of hours, react to Trump’s ceasefire extension.

To recap, shipping traffic through the strait of Hormuz remained broadly halted on Tuesday. Only three ships passed through the strait in the past 24 hours, shipping data showed.

• Donald Trump unilaterally announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday amid frantic efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. Hours after announcing that he “expected to be bombing”, the US president adopted a starkly different tone in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying he would extend the ceasefire until Iranian negotiators submitted a proposal for peace.

• The declaration came the same day an expected trip to Islamabad by JD Vance, the vice-president, had been put on hold. The delay came after Tehran failed to respond to the latest US negotiating positions. Vance’s trip will not be happening on Tuesday, per Reuters.

• Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked US president Donald Trump for accepting the country’s request to extend the ceasefire and “allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course.”

• General Majid Mousavi, aerospace chief for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, threatened to end oil production in the Middle East if the Islamic republic faced attacks launched from its Gulf neighbours’ territory. “The southern neighbours should know that if their geography and facilities are used in the service of the enemies to attack the Iranian nation, they should bid farewell to oil production in the Middle East,” said Mousavi.

• Hezbollah said it launched an attack on northern Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for what it said were Israeli violations of a 10-day ceasefire. The Iran-backed group said in a statement that its fighters launched rockets and attack drones at a site in northern Israel that it said was the source of artillery shelling towards a south Lebanon town.

• Lebanon’s prime minister Nawaf Salam said the country would need 500m euros ($587m) over the next six months to deal with the humanitarian crisis that has seen 1.2m people displaced from Lebanon’s south, ​east and the southern suburbs of Beirut.

After Donald Trump announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed on Tuesday that the US Navy will continue the blockade of Iranian ports.

“In a matter of days, Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in,” Bessent said in a post on X. “Constraining Iran’s maritime trade directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines.”

He added that the US Treasury will “continue to apply maximum pressure through Economic Fury to systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.”

“Any person or vessel facilitating these flows—through covert trade and finance—risks exposure to U.S. sanctions,” Bessent said.

The US last week imposed a blockade on Iranian ports to pressure Tehran into reopening the strait, and on Sunday it seized an Iranian cargo vessel.