Tensions are building in the Strait of Hormuz as efforts to restart peace talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad remain locked in a stalemate.

Iran has attacked three ships attempting to pass through the narrow maritime channel, seizing two and grounding another.

The attacks come after U.S.

President Donald Trump extended the ceasefire in Iran indefinitely last night until the regime in Tehran comes up with a unified proposal.

but said the US blockade of Iranian ports remains in place.

Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz this morning.

State TV reported that the euphoria is grounded off the Iranian coast and claimed the other two vessels were seized and directed toward Iran.

Though Greece said its ship, the Epaminondas, has not been detained.

The attacks come after President Donald Trump last night extended the US ceasefire with Iran indefinitely at the request of Pakistan until the regime comes up with a unified peace proposal, but said the US blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place.

Mr.

Trump followed up with a social media post saying that Iran was collapsing financially and that they were desperate to have the Strait of Hormuz reopened.

However, a senior advisor to the Iranian parliament speaker gave an aggressive response, claiming that the US ceasefire was just a ploy to buy time for a surprise attack.

There was also a show of strength on the streets of Tehran, where crowds cheered on a display of ballistic missiles still very much intact.

Iran's ambassador to Pakistan met Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Islamabad today in an attempt to resurrect a second round of peace talks and find some way of reopening the strait.

The freedom of passage has become a bargaining chip between the sides because of the underlying tensions.

So inevitably that will have to be addressed in conjunction with other problems.

But of course we need to assure freedom of navigation.

It is essential for world economy.

Westerners are feeling the effect of high fuel prices.

But in poorer nations more reliant on oil stuck in the Gulf, fuel is already running out.

Fergal Gallagher, RTE News.

We can talk now to our Washington correspondent, Jackie Fox.

So Jackie, the ceasefire is extended, although as we saw there, those three ships were targeted in the Strait of Hormuz today.

So what are the chances of talks between the US and Iran actually getting underway?

Well, the status of a second round of negotiations between the United States and Iran remain unclear.

Nothing is scheduled and no sign of anything happening either, Tommy.

What we are hearing is why US negotiators did not travel to Pakistan yesterday.

There were concerns that the Iranians just would not show up but there were also concerns about whether it would be worthwhile.

Questions over the power and the influence of Iranian negotiators and the power that they have back in Iran.

So what were the other problems?

Other issues that derailed the talks, trust and the Strait of Hormuz.

We know that the United States wants Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz before a deal is reached.

Iran said that yes, it can do that as long as the US lifts its blockade.

Donald Trump said that he's not going to do that, so now we're stuck.

What we're seeing is Iran really stepping up its control over the Strait of Hormuz, applying more pressure to the united states to do something about that but what we're seeing is that both sides have this leverage now that they just really do not want to give up so the test is to see who is going to withstand all that economic pressure that is coming from all of this jackie fox in washington thank you the european commission has launched a series of measures designed to tackle the short and medium-term impacts of the energy crisis triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran.

The measures will include a relaxation of EU state aid rules to allow member states to spend public funds to caution the worst impacts of higher energy prices on households and businesses but the EU's energy commissioner today warned that the impact of the current energy crisis could be felt for some time.

We will step up action to ensure that the supply of fuels, including for planes, are adequate across the whole union.

If we imagine that there is a peace tomorrow, it will still take, for instance, Qatar probably two years, maybe even more, to rebuild their gas production and transportation infrastructure.

Well, let's get more on this now from our Europe editor, Tony Connolly, who's in Brussels.

Tony, some experts say that the lesson in this crisis is the need to speed up investment in renewables and backup systems.

Is that part of the EU response?

Well, that's certainly the broad message from the European Union, that they're going to have to tackle the immediate problems facing consumers, facing industry.

But it's a stark reminder of the need for the European Union to move away from a dependence on imported fossil fuels.

We saw that with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and now with the war in the Gulf.

Today, the Commission said that the EU had spent an extra 24 billion euro simply to pay for the higher prices of oil and gas.

And that was a stark reminder of the problems with having that dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Now, in terms of what they're offering today, it's a mix of legislation that's already in the pipeline on European grids, electricity grids.

I think the most eye-catching element is the fact that member states will be able to relax public spending to cushion the cost of energy and high prices for consumers, for SMEs, for energy-intensive industries.

What Dan Jorgensen also mentioned today was this idea of a fuel observatory.

Now, that's really to monitor across the E.U.

what is the state of play with jet fuel.

Europe gets 20 percent of its jet fuel from the Strait of Hormuz, so that's obviously a problem.

The stocks are relatively OK at the moment, says the Commission, but there has to be very close coordination between airlines, between governments and between fuel providers to make sure there will be enough to go around across the EU.

Now, a stark reminder of the pressure that is on airlines today was that Lufthansa has cut 20,000 flights as a result of an increased cost in jet fuel.

Now, these measures will be discussed by EU leaders when they meet in Cyprus tomorrow at an informal European summit.

But across the board, these are measures really to try and cushion the effect in the short term.

But long term, the EU is insistent we must move away from imported fossil fuels and have a greater embrace of renewables.

Europe, editor Tony Connolly, thank you for that.

Well, as you've been hearing, there is still considerable uncertainty around the prospect of peace talks between the United States and Iran with those three ships attacked in the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces today.

Can the current standoff between both sides be brought to an end and how might that happen we're joined by dr patrick burry former nato analyst and defense lecturer at the university of bath and thanks indeed for joining us on the 6-1 dr burry last night we saw the us president to extend that ceasefire with iran the fact that the us did this unilaterally can that be interpreted as as iran having the upper and upper hand here Good afternoon, Tommy.

Thanks for having us on again.

I think you'll be interpreted in a couple of ways.

The more optimistic way, of course, is that there is some progress being made through back channels around the talks about the talks, for example, and that you need a little bit more time.

And then hopefully, as President Trump has just said in the last few minutes, there may well be further talks in the next 36 to 72 hours.

So that's a positive spin on it.

I suppose I'm more negative one is that given the lack of coherence about the strategy, the way that the strategic aims were articulated, the way that they've changed, and then the necessity for the US to bring in a counter naval blockade against any Iranian shipping trying to get out, that the fact that it's been extended unilaterally, as you say, suggests that it's a bit of a mess.

Now, both of these, of course, can be true.

They're not mutually exclusive.

And I would suggest that is probably a bit of both that's happening at the moment.

I think Donald Trump made those comments, I think, to the New York Post a short time ago about the fact that he thinks that talks might be able to get underway in the next few days.

And then at the same time today, we see those three ships targeted in the Strait of Hormuz.

So based on what's happening today, are we likely to see those talks going ahead?

Or does that indicate that actually it could be some time before both sides are able to sit down and talk to each other?

It's obviously complex.

There's obviously bits we're not seeing.

And as we know, there's distance, considerable distance between both sides.

And it has focused on the Iranians basically holding out for non-attendance at the talks until the naval counter-blockade is lifted.

Now, there's a prestige issue here too, because the US does not want to be seen to blink first.

It hasn't in previous crises.

Often you can de-escalate these things through back channels and a fudge essentially, so both save face.

But there's also the Chinese element here potentially getting the US to back down or blink first on the world stage.

Personally, if I was betting on it, I think there'd be some sort of talks, but it's not 100% clear when that's going to be at a course.

There's a lot of commentary about how there's pressure on Donald Trump to end this war for various reasons, mostly economic reasons, but is there pressure on Iran to bring this to an end as well, to open up the Strait of Hormuz?

There is, of course, diplomatic pressure.

I mean, the Iranian regime is now fractured.

It's, you know, first and second tier leadership has been killed, essentially, and it's more fractured than it was.

But that does not mean that it's necessarily weaker.

It's got the strong will to survive its regime survival.

And many of the more moderate members of the regime are now dead and therefore you've got more radical hardliners in there.

So they have to look over their shoulders.

So far there's a media blackout and an internet blackout in Iran.

There's strong displays of pro-Iranian or pro-regime support inside Iran, but they would also be looking for any signs of an uprising again.

So they are strategically in a strong position by dint of their geography, as we're all experiencing, but it's not as if they're out of the woods as well either.

Donald Trump says the Iranian regime is fractured.

Who is calling the shots in Iran?

Difficult to know ultimately, but what we certainly saw was, first of all, because of all the decapitation, there's going to be a lack of coherence and clarity.

And we knew this was a factor of the Iranian regime before the war started.

So you have different fiefdoms.

Really, the main power base, because of the military power, is inside the IRGC and the politicians and generals around that sector.

They're the ones that have said, we're not participating in the talks after the foreign ministry said they would.

until that US counter-blockade was lifted.

Just finally, Dr.

Burry, in terms of China, I know there was a statement issued by Xi Jinping a few days ago.

Would some of their allies in the Gulf feel that perhaps China could be doing more here to put pressure on Iran to open up the strait?

I think they're probably doing a fair bit in the back channels.

They certainly have strong links with the Pakistanis, and I would not be surprised if they'd pushed and helped them to host the talks.

and they've got channels into the Iranian regime, including the IRGC, I would suggest.

So I think they'll be working on it.

But the thing is, they will not want to let the US escape without any costs for this.

And this is where the prestige issue about who blinks first is quite interesting.

Dr.

Patrick Bury, former NATO analyst and lecturer at the University of Bath.

Thanks indeed for joining us on 6.1.

Thanks.