US told Israel ceasefire with Iran will expire on Sunday: Israeli media
A destroyed vehicle amid rubble at the site of a strike on a residential building, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 16, 2026. REUTERS
The United States told Israel that the recently extended ceasefire with Iran will expire on Sunday, according to Israeli media reports.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN said on Wednesday that US officials conveyed to Tel Aviv that the timeframe set by President Donald Trump for Tehran is due to end within days.
Citing an unnamed diplomatic source, the broadcaster said Trump is seeking to reach an understanding with Iran rather than engage in open-ended negotiations.
Israeli sources also said a breakthrough by Sunday appears unlikely.
They also described what they called “confusion” in US conduct, saying they have recently been learning about Trump’s moves through media reports and his posts on social media.
Earlier on Wednesday, a White House official told Fox News that the ceasefire could last between three and five days. At the same time, an Israeli source said the situation remains unclear and depends largely on Trump’s decisions, according to the broadcaster.
On Tuesday, Trump announced an extension of the ceasefire with Iran following a request from Pakistan, saying it would remain in place until Tehran presents what he described as a “unified proposal.”
Hostilities in the region have escalated since the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28. In response, Tehran retaliated with strikes on Israel and other regional countries hosting US assets.
Pakistan hosted talks between Washington and Tehran on April 11–12 after brokering the ceasefire on April 8. Efforts for another round of negotiations are underway, though uncertainty remains.
US intercepts three Iranian oil tankers in Asian waters
The US military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters and is redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday.
Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran's trade by sea, while Iran has prevented ships from sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway at the entrance to the Middle East Gulf. Nearly two months after the US and Israel began their war on Iran, there is little sign of peace talks resuming during an uneasy ceasefire.
The closure of the strait has disrupted the supply of a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies and caused a global energy crisis. US forces have seized an Iranian cargo ship and an oil tanker in recent days. Iran said it had captured two container ships seeking to exit the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after firing on them and another vessel, its first seizures since the war began.
The US has diverted at least three more Iranian-flagged oil tankers in recent days, according to two US and Indian shipping sources and two separate Western maritime security source who spoke to Reuters on Wednesday.
The US military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the interceptions.
One of the vessels was the Iranian-flagged Deep Sea supertanker, which was part-loaded with crude and last seen on its public tracking transponder off Malaysia's coast a week ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The smaller Iranian-flagged Sevin, which had a maximum capacity of 1 million barrels and was carrying 65% of its load, was also intercepted. The vessel was last seen off Malaysia’s coast a month ago, ship tracking data showed.
The Iranian-flagged supertanker Dorena was also intercepted, fully loaded with 2 million barrels of crude, and last seen off the coast of southern India three days ago, according to the sources and ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform.
The US Central Command said on Wednesday in a post on X that the Dorena has been under the escort of a US Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after attempting to violate the blockade.
US forces may have intercepted the Iranian-flagged Derya tanker, shipping sources said. The vessel failed to discharge its cargo of Iranian oil in India before a US waiver on Iranian crude purchases expired on Sunday. That vessel was last seen off India’s western coast on Friday, according to MarineTraffic data.
US Central Command said on Wednesday that since the start of its blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, US forces had directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port.
The US military has not listed all the ships it has intercepted, and did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Derya and the Deep Sea.
A third maritime security source said the US military was looking to target Iranian ships away from the Strait of Hormuz and in open waters to avoid any risk of floating mines during operations.
Iran tightens control of Hormuz after US calls off renewed attacks
Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz as it tightened its grip on the strategic waterway after US President Donald Trump announced he was indefinitely calling off attacks, with no sign of peace talks restarting.
The status of a two-week-old ceasefire, due to expire earlier this week, remained unclear. In a sharp about-face hours after threatening renewed violence, Trump made what appeared to be a unilateral announcement on Tuesday that the US would extend a ceasefire until it had discussed an Iranian proposal in peace talks to end the two-month-old war.
Read: Complete ceasefire only sensible if not violated by US maritime blockade: Iran's negotiating chief
But Iranian officials did not say they had agreed to any extension of the truce, and criticised Trump's decision to maintain the US Navy blockade of Iran's trade by sea, itself considered by Iran an act of war. Iran's parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said a full ceasefire only made sense if the blockade was lifted.
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the slender chokepoint that carried a fifth of the world's oil trade before the war, was impossible with such a "flagrant breach of the ceasefire," Qalibaf said on social media.
"You did not achieve your goals through military aggression, and you will not achieve them by bullying either," he wrote in his first response to Trump's announcement. "The only way is recognising the Iranian people's rights."
Trump again backed away at the last moment from his repeated threats to bomb Iran's power plants and other civilian infrastructure, which the United Nations and others warn would violate international humanitarian law. But little progress has been made in ending the war that started with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
That leaves the two sides in a holding pattern with the crucial Strait of Hormuz still effectively shut, straining economies across the world. Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, where Iran-allied Hezbollah fights against Israeli aggression and bombardment of civilian infrastructure.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two vessels and escorted them to Iranian shores, according to statements by the shipping companies and Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.
IRGC released footage of the interception of two vessels, MSC-FRANCESCA and EPAMINODES, after maritime violations in the Strait of Hormuz.
Follow: https://t.co/mLGcUTS2ei pic.twitter.com/ZUUBbzbA2NThe Revolutionary Guards accused the ships it had seized, the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas and Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, of operating without required permits and tampering with their navigation systems.
A third, Liberia-flagged container ship was fired upon in the same area but was not damaged and had resumed sailing, according to maritime security sources.
Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News that since the ships were not US or Israeli vessels, the seizure was not a violation of the ceasefire. She called it an act of "piracy". Iranian officials have called the US blockade of Iranian-bound vessels piracy as well.
The US military said on Wednesday it had so far directed more than 30 ships to turn around or return to port as part of the US blockade against Iran. Far beyond the Gulf, the US military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters, sources said, redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Read more: Pezeshkian blames US 'blockade' for impasse
Brent, the international crude oil benchmark, remained above $100 a barrel in Asian trade on Thursday, having hit triple figures a day earlier for the first time in two weeks.
No new deadline for ceasefire
In his Tuesday announcement, Trump said that the US had agreed to a request by Pakistani mediators "to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal ... and discussions are concluded, one way or the other."
He has not set any deadline for the proposal or discussions, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Pakistan, which has acted as a mediator, was still trying to bring the sides together after both failed to show up for tentatively scheduled talks in Islamabad on Tuesday before the two-week-old ceasefire was due to expire.
A first session of peace talks between Iran and the US in Islamabad 11 days ago produced no agreement.
Trump wants Iran to give up highly enriched uranium and forgo further enrichment to, allegedly, prevent it from building a nuclear weapon. Iran says it has only a peaceful civilian nuclear programme, and wants the lifting of sanctions, reparations for damage and recognition of its control over the strait.
Iran has also made a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah a condition of truce talks. On Wednesday, Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least five people, including the Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil.
It was the deadliest day since a 10-day ceasefire was announced on April 16 between Israel and Lebanon, notwithstanding the thousand-plus Lebanese killed by Israeli attacks over the course of the war.