Iran vows retaliation, accuses U.S. of violating ceasefire after attack on cargo ship Touska.

With U.S.-Iran peace talks due in Pakistan, U.S. forces attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get past his country’s naval blockade near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

In a social media post on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the ship, named Touska, was warned by a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman to stop, but its “crew refused to listen”.

“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,” Trump said in the post.

CENTCOM said it issued multiple warnings over six hours. The ship, Touska, did not comply. It was then fired upon.

“The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 19, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska’s propulsion when the commercial ship failed to comply with repeated warnings from U.S. forces over a six-hour period,” CENTCOM said on X.

It’s the first such incident since the U.S. military imposed a naval blockade on Iran’s southern coast, forbidding ships to head to and from Iranian ports. 

In response, Iranian forces launched drones toward US warships following an attack on an Iranian commercial ship, Iranian media reports.

Early on Monday, Iran’s top joint military command confirmed the US had violated a ceasefire reached earlier this month by firing at an Iranian commercial ship that was heading from China to Iran, accusing them of committing “maritime piracy”.

“We warn that the armed ⁠forces of the Islamic ⁠Republic of Iran will ⁠soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by ‌the US military,” a spokesperson of Khatam al-Anbiya said, as reported by Tasnim.

The development comes amid a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, amid threats from Iran and a U.S. blockade on ships heading to and from Iranian ports.

Most ships are not passing through the waterway because of the conflict. 

Iran said it was closing the route on Friday after briefly reopening it a day before, in line with a 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon.

Iran said it would continue enforcing its restrictions there after Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with Washington.

The interception of the Touska came just hours after Trump said that the US negotiators would travel to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday for possible talks with Iran aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran.

 But Iranian state media reported that Tehran had not agreed to a second round of talks.