{"id":94586,"date":"2026-04-20T06:08:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=94586"},"modified":"2026-04-20T06:08:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:08:03","slug":"news-and-analysis-4-20-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=94586","title":{"rendered":"News and Analysis 4\/20\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;U.S. forces have been preparing for the possibility of seizures for days&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/2026\/04\/19\/trump-iran-war-hormuz-strait-negotiations\/\">Trump Says U.S. Seized Iranian Ship Trying to Bypass Blockade of Strait of Hormuz<\/a> (Washington Post)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>U.S. and Iran can&#8217;t even agree on whether peace talks are taking place:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/20\/us\/politics\/vance-iran-peace-negotiations.html\">Vance Heads to New Talks With Iran. At Stake: Peace and His Own Standing<\/a> (NY Times)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/04\/19\/trump-accuses-iran-of-total-violation-as-strait-of-hormuz-remains-shut\/\">Iran Rejects New Peace Talks as Trump Sends Negotiators to Pakistan<\/a> (Time)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/04\/20\/us-iran-war-middle-east-conflict-peace-deal-strait-hormuz-shipping-ceasefire-tensions.html\">\u2018Resumption of Hostilities\u2019: Seized Ship, Vessel Attacks Push U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Toward Brink<\/a> (CNBC)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The &#8220;US president\u2019s unreliable style sows diplomatic confusion but leaves Tehran clear on strategic value of strait of Hormuz&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/19\/intemperate-trump-brings-chaos-and-confusion-to-iran-talks\">Intemperate Trump Brings Chaos and Confusion to Iran Talks<\/a> (The Guardian)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The dispute is over whether only &#8220;to an end U.S. public spending to support Israel\u2019s military, &#8230; [or to] also halt the commercial sale of weapons from U.S. companies to Israel\u2019s government&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/04\/19\/israel-weapons-military-aid-arms-embargo-democrats\/\">Democrats Are Split over What It Means to Block Israel Weapons Deals<\/a> (The Intercept)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Shamim Mafi, 44, was nabbed on charges she brokered the sale of &#8216;drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition&#8217; between Iran and the Sudanese Armed Forces&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-04-19\/feds-woodland-hills-woman-arrested-at-lax-trafficked-arms-to-iran\">Woodland Hills Woman Nabbed at LAX on Iranian Arms Trafficking Charge<\/a> (LA Times)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Targets reportedly include a Saudi pipeline to the Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and a UAE export terminal at Fujairah, outside the Gulf&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3350671\/iran-war-escalates-houthis-threaten-sever-saudi-oil-exports\">Iran War Escalates as Houthis Threaten to Sever Saudi Oil Exports<\/a> (SCMP)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A victory like this may be worse than defeat:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/World\/Middle-East\/2026\/0420\/iran-war-regime-change-hard-line-new-leaders\">In Iran, the Regime Has Indeed Changed: It\u2019s Less Restrained, More Hard-line<\/a> (Christian Science Monitor)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;U.S. forces have been preparing for the possibility of seizures for days&#8221;: Trump Says U.S. Seized Iranian Ship Trying to Bypass Blockade of Strait of Hormuz (Washington Post) U.S. and Iran can&#8217;t even agree on whether peace talks are taking place: Vance Heads to New Talks With Iran. At Stake: Peace and His Own Standing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94586"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94592,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94586\/revisions\/94592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}