Iran has fully prepared for the possible resumption of war as the ceasefire deadline approaches, with new surprises ready for any new round of imposed war, the Tasnim News Agency reported on Tuesday, citing informed sources.

According to the report, the US naval blockade announcements and Washington’s excessive demands have prevented the formation of new negotiations as the agreed ceasefire period nears its end.

“Iran is fully prepared for the possibility of a new war and has prepared new surprises for a potential new round of combat,” the report said.

The sources told Tasnim that over the past two weeks, Iran has taken the possibility of renewed war seriously.

“Accordingly, some military movements and new target lists have been prepared for this purpose,” the report added.

Iran is ready to create “another hell” for Americans and Israelis from the very beginning of any potential new war, the sources said.

The United States and Israel launched their unprovoked, illegal war of aggression against Iran on February 28, assassinating the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and striking nuclear facilities, schools, hospitals and bridges, along other civilian sites.

Iran’s armed forces responded with 100 waves of decisive retaliatory strikes under Operation True Promise 4, launching hundreds of ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as drones, against American military bases across West Asia and Israeli positions throughout the occupied territories.

A two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, took effect following the intense 40-day war. However, tensions have remained high.

The United States has declared plans for a naval blockade of Iranian ports, a move Tehran has condemned as provocative and a violation of the ceasefire.

Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that any US attempt to impose a blockade or conduct mine-sweeping operations in the Strait of Hormuz will be met with a decisive military response.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has previously accused Washington of bad faith, citing repeated US violations of the ceasefire, threats against Iranian shores and vessels, and continuous contradictions in American statements.

Tehran has made it clear that while it remains committed to diplomacy, it will not accept diktats or conditions imposed by the United States.

• Cause of fire being ascertained: police chief.
• Fire broke out during Hindu festival preparations.
• Indian PM offers condolences to victims’ families.
  

A firecracker storage facility in southern India caught fire on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, police said, the second such incident in three days.

Nakul Rajendra Deshmukh, police chief in Kerala state’s Thrissur district, told AFP that rescue operations were “over” after the deadly fire, which also left 15 people injured including two in critical condition.

The cause of the fire was being ascertained, he added.

Local media said it broke out during preparations for a Hindu festival.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a social media post that he was “saddened” by the loss of lives and offered his “deepest condolences” to the families of the victims.

On Sunday, 20 people died in a similar blaze at a firecracker factory in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.

Industrial accidents are common in India, often due to poor adherence to safety regulations and weak enforcement.

Last month, another fire at a fireworks factory in western India killed 17 people.

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained broadly halted on Tuesday, with only three ships passing the waterway in the past 24 hours, shipping data showed.

A US blockade of Iranian ports has infuriated Tehran, prompting it to maintain its own restrictions on the strait, which had been typically handling roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply.

The Ean Spir products tanker, which had no known flag or known ownership, sailed through Hormuz on Tuesday after previously calling at an Iraqi port, ship tracking data on the MarineTraffic platform showed.

The Lian Star cargo ship, which had no known flag or known ownership, also sailed through the strait from an Iranian port, the data showed.

Separately, the Meda liquefied petroleum gas tanker, which had called at a United Arab Emirates port in the Gulf and also had no known flag or ownership, crossed the strait on Monday in its second attempt to leave the Gulf after turning back previously, according to satellite analysis from data analytics specialists SynMax.

Those are a fraction of the 140 ships that sailed through daily before the US and Israel’s war on Iran began on February 28.

More than a dozen tankers passed through the strait after Iran briefly declared it open on Friday, before Tehran announced it was closed on Saturday, firing shots at vessels.

“Even vessels that seemingly check the publicly known boxes for successful transit through both blockades can find themselves in danger and unable to pass,” shipbroker BRS said in a note this week.

A ceasefire between the US and Iran appeared in jeopardy on Tuesday with Tehran not committing to join new peace talks and the US military saying it had seized a tanker linked to Iran in international waters.

Seafarers’ lives at risk

Hundreds of ships and 20,000 seafarers remain stuck inside the Gulf unable to sail.

“We cannot put at risk the lives of the seafarers,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the UN’s shipping agency, told reporters on the sidelines of Singapore’s maritime week on Tuesday.

“We saw what happened last weekend, that on Friday, when some ships started to sail. Then there was an announcement that the strait was closed, and then some ships were actually targeted. Thankfully, we didn’t have any casualties and there was no damage to the vessels.”

Iran’s army said an Iranian tanker had entered its territorial waters from the Arabian Sea on Monday with help from the Iranian Navy, despite what it described as repeated warnings and threats from the US naval task force.

Shipbroker BRS estimated that 61 non-Iran-related supertankers were trapped inside the Gulf at present, 50 of which were laden with cargoes of up to 2 million barrels each.

“At a time when the world is desperate for crude oil, an additional 2 million barrels slipping out of the Middle East Gulf would be gratefully received,” BRS said.