Iran says mines sank four tankers in Hormuz as Trump says war ends on his word

Four oil tankers went down in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting naval sea mines, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday. Two of the vessels were still burning, and two more tankers were seized, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The IRGC said the ships were trying to slip through a prohibited southern route.

The BBC has not independently verified the claim. It dropped a day after US officials said the American military launched strikes on Iran, and it stacks on the IRGC's earlier account that three tankers were destroyed by mines early Tuesday and that its forces shot down an MQ-9 drone over the Strait. The US strikes on Qeshm, Iran says, answered IRGC fire on a US aircraft.

The timing is loaded. The claim landed as US voters punished Republicans at the midterm elections, and Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, seized on the result. Writing on X, the parliamentary speaker said that whether from conscience or the cost of living, Americans had said no to war — a message he endorsed. He also warned Washington not to betray its public, adding that if the US government served outside paymasters instead, it would learn Iran's 'no' comes with a nightmare.

President Donald Trump isn't blinking. He acknowledged Tuesday that the rough Republican showing was partly down to the war on Iran and the gas prices it pushed up, but told the BBC's partner CBS News he had no regrets — and that the conflict ends 'when I say it ends.' In a Financial Times interview before the vote, he said he was content with how things stood and didn't consider the US 'really in a war,' while telling Fox News that some people would 'love' to land a 'heavy hit' on Iran. On Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's talk of another attack this week, Trump said the US was 'locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no need for it.'

Talks to end the fighting have been frozen for months. The conflict was triggered by joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, and Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz in response, saying it reopens only if Washington accepts its peace plan. Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said this week the seven-step plan had been trimmed and could be implemented within two days if the US agrees. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian insists his government has pushed dialogue, warning that nobody gains if the war restarts, while Ghalibaf told parliament Iran 'will not surrender.'