Here's the latest
• US-Iran talks: Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead another round of negotiations with Iranian officials, should a meeting happen before the ceasefire expires next week, sources told CNN. President Donald Trump suggested talks could resume this week in Pakistan.
• Sticking points: Both sides have proposed a suspension in Iranian uranium enrichment, but cannot settle on a timeframe, officials said. The US also wants the dismantling of Iran’s major nuclear enrichment facilities and the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
• Israel-Lebanon talks: After their first direct talks in decades, the neighbors agreed to hold further negotiations, though Israel refused to commit to a ceasefire in southern Lebanon.
As war chaos deepens, China is positioning itself as a responsible leader
As the fallout over the Iran war deepens, China is portraying itself as a responsible world leader, juxtaposed against President Donald Trump’s unpredictable foreign policy.
In comments to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared that “the world today is rife with chaos, as it faces a showdown between justice and power,” according to a statement from China’s foreign ministry.
“How a nation treats international law and the international order reflects its worldview, its concept of order, its values, and its sense of responsibility,” Xi said.
In a separate discussion on Tuesday, Xi urged the world not to be allowed to “revert to the law of the jungle,” and to not “selectively” apply the international rule of law – both phrases that have been used by Chinese leaders in the past to criticize the US.
The foreign ministry was even more direct – with a spokesperson calling the US blockade of Iranian ports a “dangerous and irresponsible move.”
Chinese officials have for weeks worked the diplomatic circuit calling for peace in the war. Trump even suggested that China helped get Iran – a close diplomatic partner – to the negotiating table in recent weeks.
After US-Iran peace talks failed in Islamabad last weekend, China’s top diplomat spoke to his Pakistani counterpart on Monday, stressing that Beijing is willing to continue to work toward peace.
Pakistan prime minister to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey as Trump hints at more talks
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey this week as a diplomatic push for a second round of talks between Iran and the United States gathers pace.
Sharif departs for Jeddah on Wednesday to meet with the Saudi leadership before traveling to Qatar “to discuss ongoing bilateral cooperation as well as regional peace and security,” according to Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In Turkey, Sharif is scheduled to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and participate in the fifth Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in a statement the official visit will shore up “further engagement to promote the peace efforts.”
Pakistan has emerged as an unlikely bridge between the US and Iran, hosting the first direct talks between the two countries on Saturday amid a fragile ceasefire.
While no deal was reached, US President Donald Trump has teased the prospect of more talks, telling the New York Post on Tuesday that “something could be happening” in Pakistan over the next two days.
It is unclear whether Sharif’s travel schedule will impact the timing of those potential talks. He returns to Islamabad on Saturday.
Iran war "very close to over," Trump says
President Donald Trump said he sees the Iran war as “very close to over.”
“I think it’s close to over. I view it as very close to over,” Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo released on Tuesday.
Trump has repeatedly claimed victory and predicted the end of the war since just days after it began at the end of February, only for fighting to continue.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump teased the prospect of more talks with Iran after last weekend’s negotiations in Islamabad failed to produce a deal, telling the New York Post that “something could be happening” in Pakistan over the next two days.
As of now, there are no known substantive plans for talks.
“We’ll see what happens. I think (Iran) want to make a deal very badly,” Trump told Bartiromo.
Trump continues feud with Pope Leo, says Iran having a nuclear bomb “absolutely unacceptable”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday night continued his feud with Pope Leo over the war in Iran and said it was “unacceptable” for Tehran to have a nuclear bomb.
“Will someone please tell Pope Leo that Iran has killed at least 42,000 innocent, completely unarmed, protesters in the last two months, and that for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump began attacking the pope on Sunday, calling him “terrible for foreign policy,” and has repeated his criticism on multiple occasions. He said the pope “doesn’t understand and shouldn’t be talking about war, because he has no idea what’s happening” in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera earlier Tuesday.
On Monday, Pope Leo said he had “no fear of the Trump administration” and would continue speaking out against war.
Some context: Trump’s insistence that Iran not posses a nuclear weapon was a major point of disagreement in negotiations between the US and Iran over the weekend.
Does Iran have other options to trade oil and gas if its ports are blockaded?
As a US military blockade of its seaports takes hold, does Iran have any overland options through which to keep its gas and oil flowing?
Last year Tehran exported up to about 1.68 million barrels of oil per day by sea, according to data and analytics firm Kpler, earning foreign cash to power its economy.
Even though it is surrounded by fuel-hungry neighbors, replicating those volumes over land will be a tall order, analysts say.
Tehran could try to ramp up gas exports via pipelines to Iraq, Turkey and Armenia, or oil exports via its Neka oil terminal in the Caspian Sea, Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, previously told CNN.
But Alhasan said the overall impact of these alternative routes is uncertain. In February, the International Energy Agency said that “available capacity on alternative export routes is limited.”
Iran has struggled to maintain its aging infrastructure due to years of sanctions.
Gas exports to Turkey have fallen below contracted quantities in recent years and its volumes to Armenia as part of a gas-for-electricity exchange “remain marginal in Iran’s overall gas balance,” according to a January blog post published by the Center on Global Energy Policy.
Without its oil flowing out to market through the Strait of Hormuz, the economic picture for Tehran is bleak.
“Iran’s economy is way more susceptible to a collapse if this blockade continues and if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed,” Miad Maleki, former senior US Treasury official and senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told CNN’s Polo Sandoval on Tuesday.
War makes it a "really dangerous time" for world economy, Australian official says
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned that the US-Israeli war with Iran had launched the global economy into a “really dangerous time.”
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Chalmers pointed to a reduced global growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund as evidence of the economic impact of the war, primarily from the near-total blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.
The inability of ships to freely transit the strait has led to shortages of commodities like crude oil, natural gas and fertilizer, pushing up prices for fuel and food.
On Tuesday, the IMF said it expects global growth of 3.1% and headline inflation of 4.4% if the conflict is short-lived. But it warned that a shutdown of the strait into next year would push growth to 2% this year and next, which would put the global economy on the brink of recession.
Chalmers was on his way to Washington for a G20 meeting of finance ministers this week, as well as meetings with the IMF and World Bank, during which he said he would join other officials in calling for an end to the war.
South Korean envoy to continue stay in Iran as Seoul faces looming oil crisis
South Korea has told its special envoy dispatched to Iran to secure the safe passage of Korean ships through the Strait of Hormuz that he must stay there until the “situation becomes stable” as Seoul contends with a looming oil crisis.
South Korea is among several US allies, including Japan, Thailand and the Philippines, which are heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil and have looked to broker deals directly with Iran since Trump launched the war in February and upended global oil markets.
Chung Byung-ha, the special envoy, was appointed last week to assist with the 26 Korea-linked vessels currently stranded in the Strait, according to South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun.
Cho said Wednesday he had to tell Chung “a difficult story” and requested that he stay in Iran “until the situation becomes stable.”
These are the ships the US Navy is using to blockade Iran
The US military is employing more than 12 warships and 100+ aircraft in enforcing the blockade of Iranian ports, US Central Command said Tuesday.
Here’s a look at some of the assets involved, according to the US Navy, and their specific roles, according to Carl Schuster, a former Navy captain:
- Aircraft carrier: Carries surveillance aircraft and fighter jets for combat air patrols. Also houses a significant command, control, communication and intelligence (C4I) center.
- Amphibious assault ship: Also conveys surveillance and attack aircraft, another C4I center, and hundreds of Marines who can board commercial ships.
- Amphibious transport dock: Will carry more Marines, helicopters, and Osprey transports.
- Dock landing ship: Comes with heavy-lift helicopters and more Marines.
- Destroyers: “They have the sensors, speed and weaponry to detect, intercept and if need be, board, seize and take the offending ship elsewhere,” Schuster said.
- Littoral combat ship: These can conduct mine countermeasures and tracking.
US is blockading Iran's ports, not the Strait of Hormuz
With the US blockade of Iranian ports well underway, reports are emerging of some commercial traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
This should not necessarily be seen as ships getting past the US blockade. Note that US Central Command (CENTCOM) said no vessels have breached the blockade since its implementation.
“U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea,” CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a social media post.
Two key points:
- As stated by CENTCOM, the blockade covers all Iranian ports, inside and outside of the Strait of Hormuz, but not the strait itself. Traffic not related to Iran may cross. Blockading an international waterway is illegal under maritime law.
- In enforcing the blockade, Washington said its forces can interdict ships carrying Iran-linked cargo tens of thousands of miles away. A commercial ship can be targeted until it reaches a neutral port.
Analysts say modern technology allows blockade enforcement at great distances.
He noted the 12-plus ships CENTCOM said are on blockade duty. Most, if not all, of them are outside the strait. They can carry sophisticated tracking and reconnaissance gear linked to air and space systems.
And on some of them are Marines who, along with Navy teams, can board and take over commercial ships that don’t heed US warnings to stop or return to the Iranian ports they left.
Analysts also note the size of the US Navy allows it to track and possibly seize a ship days or weeks into its journey anywhere in the world.
Earlier this year, US forces seized a Venezuelan tanker in the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from its originating port.
CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout contributed reporting
Trump's AI Jesus post gifts Iranian embassies fresh content for meme war
Iran’s embassies continue to fire back at US President Donald Trump on social media, posting a series of mocking, AI-generated memes to their official accounts that have often gone viral.
The flashy, often sarcastic posts, which tend to target the president directly, have become a defining part of Iran’s communication strategy during the war with the US.
Many of the memes attempt to poke fun at Trump’s online behavior while pushing Tehran’s talking points as both sides wage an online communications war.
‘Jesus’ image: One recent video posted to X by the Iranian Embassy in Tajikistan uses the since-deleted image Trump shared to Truth Social this week depicting himself as Jesus healing a sick person, which sparked widespread backlash. Trump said he thought the image depicted him as a doctor.
Christians across faith traditions — even many in the MAGA universe who have otherwise supported Trump — roundly denounced Trump’s rendering as “blasphemy.”
In the video shared by the embassy, a Christ-like figure descends from the sky, punches the apparent Trump-as-Jesus, sending blood spewing, as the president falls over a cliff into a pit of lava. In the background, a male voice says: “Your reckoning has come.”
Some Iranian memes dig further into Trump’s archives.
One post by the Iranian Embassy in Thailand this week said: “A wise man once said, ‘Open the strait or I will covfefe,’” a reference to a typo in a 2017 Trump tweet that became a viral joke.
Other memes tap into American popular culture and domestic politics.
‘Pirates of Hormuz’: One cleary AI-generated image recently shared by the Iran Embassy in Zimbabwe resembles a movie poster advertising the popular American movie franchise Pirates of the Caribbean.
This poster shows helicopters flying over burning ships at sea. Trump’s face is superimposed on the protagonist, and the title of the fake film is “Pirates of the Hormuz.”
Iran is digging for missile launchers trapped underground, images show
CNN Global Affairs Analyst Karim Sadjadpour discusses new satellite images showing Iran digging for missile launchers trapped underground amid the ceasefire.
Trump has teased more peace talks with Iran. Catch up on the latest
US Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead a potential second round of talks with Iran if both sides agree to meet before their ceasefire expires next week, sources told CNN.
US President Donald Trump teased the prospect of more talks yesterday, telling the New York Post that “something could be happening” in Pakistan over the next two days. As of Tuesday, there are no known substantive plans for talks.
The ceasefire has not halted Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, where it says it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah, but yesterday’s talks in Washington, DC provided some hope. Israel and Lebanon agreed to meet again, officials said, after their first direct negotiations in decades.
The diplomatic push comes as the US blockade on Iranian ports continues, though some ships have since transited the Strait of Hormuz.
Here’s what else you need to know:
- War talks: Lebanon’s ambassador to the US said the “date and location” for the next direct talks with Israel “will be announced in due course” and that Tuesday’s “preliminary meeting was constructive.” Israel, however, refused to commit to a ceasefire in southern Lebanon.
- Attacks on Lebanon: At least 35 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon in 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry said. Israel began attacks on what it says are Hezbollah targets in the country just over six weeks ago, and it has continued to conduct strikes following the current ceasefire between Iran and the US.
- US aircraft remains: Newly released satellite images, provided by Airbus and dated April 10, show the burnt-out remains of a US plane at a remote Iranian airstrip used in the daring rescue of the US airman whose F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down inside Iran earlier this month.
- More from Vance: The vice president said he believed the Iranians sitting across the table during talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, “wanted to make a deal,” despite decades of US-Iran mistrust. He also said he’s going to continue fighting for the “grand bargain” that he said Trump wants to make with Tehran.
CNN’s Alayna Treene, Jennifer Hansler, Isaac Yee, Charbel Mallo, Catherine Nicholls, Kit Maher and Donald Judd contributed reporting.
