Democracy Dies with Dictatorship
NY Times
Apr 15, 2026
Iran War Live Updates: Iran Threatens Retaliation Over U.S. Blockade
Iran’s armed forces said they would attempt to expand their influence over sea lanes beyond the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. military continued to block Iranian shipping.
Updated
April 15, 2026, 8:32 a.m. ET18 minutes ago
Ali WatkinsPeter EavisAaron Boxerman and Erika Solomon
Here’s the latest
Iran on Wednesday threatened further retaliation over an American naval blockade of its ports in the critical Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. military said that it had “completely halted” trade in and out of Iran by sea.
More than 10,000 soldiers, as well as dozens of planes and warships, are enforcing the blockade, the U.S. military said. In response, the Iranian military said on state media that it could expand its grip over critical shipping routes beyond the strait if the U.S. blockade continued.
“Iran’s powerful armed forces will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea,” said Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, leader of the military joint command that oversees Iran’s army and Revolutionary Guards.
Mediators are rushing to shore up a two-week cease-fire in the war between the United States, Israel and Iran that expires April 21. But the future of the talks is unclear after a meeting between Vice President JD Vance and senior Iranian leaders over the weekend in Pakistan ended without a breakthrough.
Esmaeil Baghaei, a senior Iranian official, said that Iran had continued to exchange messages with the United States through Pakistan since the talks ended on Sunday morning.
President Trump, in an interview with Fox Business, again deemed the conflict “close to over” — a claim he has made repeatedly — while also suggesting that U.S. attacks could continue as long as needed to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Iran has not fully relaxed its control over the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf conduit for oil and gas, which Mr. Trump said was a precondition for the current truce. Iran began blockading the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure tactic during the war, rattling the world economy and sending energy prices soaring.
Reaching a deal to end the war would require not only an agreement to reopen the strait, but also an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program and Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group.
The United States announced on Tuesday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to “launch direct negotiations” to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The announcement followed a rare face-to-face meeting in Washington between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors.
Hezbollah condemned the Lebanese government for negotiating with Israel, however, and it was unclear whether any Israel-Lebanon agreement would lead to an end in the fighting. Hezbollah has long been Lebanon’s dominant military and political force, defying attempts by the official Lebanese government to assert control.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Lebanon: The talks between Israel and Lebanon did not lead to an immediate cease-fire. Israeli forces bombarded towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanese state media. Several people were killed in a strike in the coastal town of Ansariya, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.
Iranian rescues: Emergency teams have rescued more than 7,200 Iranians from rubble after U.S. and Israeli bombings throughout the war, the president of Iran’s Red Crescent society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said. The Iranian authorities have released little comprehensive information about the dead and wounded in the country, more than a month in the war.
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of last Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday that 2,124 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. In attacks attributed to Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Persian Gulf nations. At least 22 people had been killed in Israel as of Sunday, as well as 12 Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
April 15, 2026, 8:37 a.m. ET14 minutes ago
Erika Solomon and Sanam Mahoozi
The spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said that there was a “high chance” Iran would host a delegation of Pakistani mediators on Wednesday. “Following the discussions that took place in Islamabad, as well as the talks the Pakistani side has had with the United States, our views have been conveyed and heard,” Esmail Baghaei, the spokesman, told a news conference in Tehran, according to the state news agency, IRNA. “Naturally, during this visit, there will likely be comprehensive discussions about the perspectives of both sides.”
April 15, 2026, 8:17 a.m. ET34 minutes ago
Reporting from Jerusalem
A day after Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met in Washington for negotiations, the Israeli military said it was continuing to attack in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces had struck more than 200 targets there over the past 24 hours, the military said. Israel says its military campaign is against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group. But Lebanon as a whole is paying a steep price: more than 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and more than 2,000 have been killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
April 15, 2026, 7:15 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
As talks begin, U.S. applies little pressure to Israel to stop the fighting in Lebanon
The rare talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington this week were hailed by the United States as a “historic milestone” and a major first step toward lasting peace between the Mideast neighbors.
But the message the Trump administration sent as the talks concluded suggested a different reality: that Israel was under little pressure from Washington to end the fighting.
The meeting, which took place on Tuesday and was the first of its kind in decades, ended with an agreement to work toward “direct negotiations” between Israel and Lebanon, a U.S. statement said. The statement did not, however, call for a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah as a condition for negotiations, instead citing Israel’s “right to defend itself” from Hezbollah’s “continued attacks.” Nor did it urge Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory that it has invaded and signaled that it plans to occupy.
The statement provided further indication that Washington was largely leaving Israel to decide whether to press the offensive in Lebanon, even as the humanitarian toll mounted.
Israel has overwhelming military superiority and is pressing its advantage on the battlefield, while Lebanon’s government is hobbled and exercises no direct control over Hezbollah. The powerful group has outright rejected any negotiations with Israel, leaving Lebanese officials to negotiate over a war that is largely out of their control.
After more than a year of near-daily strikes, Israel last month launched a sweeping offensive against Hezbollah. That operation came after Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets into Israel in solidarity with Iran, which had been attacked by Israel and the United States.
Despite President Trump’s announcement of a cease-fire with Iran last week, Israel has intensified attacks in Lebanon, claiming that the country was not included in the truce.
Mr. Trump said last week that he had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to scale back the campaign. But other than a halt to strikes on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, there has been little sign of a slowdown in attacks.
For Lebanon’s government, even the prospect of talks with Israel was deeply fraught at home, exposing political divisions about how to engage with Israel, which it still officially regards as an enemy state.
Lebanese officials nonetheless signaled an openness to negotiations and, under mounting international pressure, reiterated pledges to disarm Hezbollah. In response, Hezbollah leaders rejected calls to lay down their arms and threatened street protests that could further destabilize the country.
Lebanon’s promise to disarm Hezbollah comes as Israel seems no closer to agreeing to halt strikes that have inflicted widespread civilian casualties and destruction in Lebanon. That contrast fuels Hezbollah’s accusations that the Lebanese government is acquiescing to Israel and engaging in futile negotiations while still under fire.
But Lebanon’s government has few cards left to play, and it faces a bitter dilemma: confront Hezbollah and risk internal rupture, or shrink from that fight and watch as Israel’s war grinds on.
April 15, 2026, 7:13 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Bureau chief for Iran and Iraq
The operational command for Iran’s armed forces has warned that Tehran will attempt to expand its authority over critical shipping routes beyond the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. blockade of the strategic waterway continues. If the blockade “creates insecurity” for Iran’s commercial and oil vessels, Iran will consider it “a prelude to violating the cease-fire,” according to a statement from Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, the commander overseing Iran’s army and Revolutionary Guards. In that case, “Iran’s powerful armed forces will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea,” he said.
April 15, 2026, 7:04 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Fox Business just aired more of its interview with President Trump, who said that he believed the war with Iran was “close to over,” while also suggesting that U.S. attacks would continue as long as it takes to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. He also repeated his threats to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure, while saying he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “We could take out every one of their bridges in one hour. We could take out every one of their power plants in one hour,” he told the host Maria Bartiromo. “We don’t want to do that.”
He added that the economic crisis touched off by the war was “worth it” to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. American intelligence assessments have consistently said that before U.S.-Israeli attacks began Feb. 28, Iran had been undecided over whether to pursue a nuclear weapon — unless their enrichment sites were attacked or their supreme leader was killed.
April 15, 2026, 6:07 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Bureau chief for Iran and Iraq
In Iran, emergency teams have rescued more than 7,200 people from rubble after U.S. and Israeli bombings throughout the war, the president of Iran’s Red Crescent society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said. He released a statement on Wednesday with statistics from the group’s operations that said that some missions to recover human remains from bombings took as long as 20 days. The death toll in Iran since the war began Feb. 28 is not fully clear, but Iran’s Human Rights Activists News Agency has said that at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed as of last Wednesday.
April 15, 2026, 4:01 a.m. ET5 hours ago
Reporting from Jerusalem
Israeli forces bombarded towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to Lebanese state media, as the military kept up its sweeping ground invasion there. Several people were killed in a strike in the coastal town of Ansariya, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said. The Israeli military said that it was continuing to attack Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
April 15, 2026, 3:24 a.m. ET5 hours ago
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, asked Moscow on Wednesday to help promote a more “just and equitable international order” in the face of a “changing and turbulent” international situation, an apparent reference to the war in Iran and other conflicts. Speaking in Beijing with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, Mr. Xi said that amid such instability China-Russia relations were “especially precious.”
April 15, 2026, 1:58 a.m. ET7 hours ago
Pakistan, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, has been a key mediator in the U.S.-Iran talks. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Sharif would leave on Wednesday for Saudi Arabia and Qatar to discuss “regional peace and security” with their leaders. The ministry did not explicitly reference the Iran war.
The final stop on Sharif’s April 15-18 trip is Turkey, where he is expected to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other world leaders, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.