World
As US and Iran weigh peace deal, stranded seafarers wait in limbo
Stranded at an Iranian port for nearly 10 weeks, Indian seafarer Anish has unintentionally become a firsthand witness to the Iran war.
Anish arrived in the Shatt al-Arab waterway on a cargo ship days before United States President Donald Trump launched “Operation Epic Fury” on February 28.
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He has been stuck on the vessel ever since.
“We’ve faced the whole situation here, the war, the missiles,” Anish, who was granted a pseudonym after agreeing to speak on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera.
“Our minds are terribly distracted.”
Some of his fellow Indian seafarers have been able to return home by crossing Iran’s 44km land border with Armenia, Anish said, but many others have remained because they are still waiting to get paid.
“Some are stuck because of their Indian agents; they are not getting their salaries,” Anish said, referring to the middlemen who recruit seafarers, manage payrolls and take care of other employee matters on behalf of shipping firms.
“Some are stuck because the Iranian agents say we will not give you the dollars to reach Armenia.”
Anish said he has been subsisting on a diet of potatoes, onions, tomatoes and flatbread, but has heard that food and water on other ships are running low.
Anish’s predicament is one faced by an estimated 20,000 seafarers stranded since Iran in effect shut the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the United States and Israel’s attacks on the country.
Before the war, the strait functioned as one of the world’s most critical shipping routes, carrying about one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies, and one-third of the seaborne fertiliser trade.
Despite the announcement of a tenuous ceasefire between Washington and Tehran on April 7, maritime traffic has remained at a standstill amid recurrent attacks in and around the waterway.
US Central Command said on Thursday that it had “intercepted” and “eliminated” inbound Iranian threats after three US Navy guided-missile destroyers came under attack from missiles, drones and small boats while crossing the strait.
Iran’s military said it had retaliated against the US Navy vessels after US forces targeted an oil tanker in its territorial waters.
Tehran also accused Washington of violating their ceasefire by carrying out air strikes on civilian areas, including Qeshm Island.
Throughout the war, Iran has offered ships safe passage through its territorial waters for a fee, while continuing to fire intermittently on commercial vessels.
At the same time, the US has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13 in a bid to disrupt Tehran’s oil exports and access to foreign currency.
UK-based maritime intelligence company Lloyd’s List said on Monday that at least four commercial ships were fired upon since the previous day, while a container ship operated by French company CMA CGM on Wednesday reported that it had come under attack while crossing the waterway.
The United Nations International Maritime Organization estimates that at least 10 seafarers have been killed since the start of the war.
Iran’s merchant marine union reported that at least 44 Iranian seafarers, including dockworkers and fishermen, had been killed as of April 1.
Trump said on Wednesday that US officials held “very good talks” with Tehran and that a peace deal was “very possible”, but it remains unclear how close the sides are to any agreement.
While some ships have managed to exit the Strait of Hormuz during brief lulls in hostilities, each day brings new uncertainty for the civilian crews manning the Gulf’s massive fleet of oil, gas and container ships, according to labour groups.
Last month, Iranian forces detained two foreign-flagged cargo ships and their crew, while the US Navy captured three Iran-linked commercial vessels in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
The prospect of being detained on top of being stranded at sea has created an “enhanced state of fear,” said Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which represents about 700 unions across 150 countries.
“Since the beginning of the year, we’ve got military forces boarding ships like it’s the 17th century, and that’s terrifying,” Cotton told Al Jazeera.
“It’s kind of crazy, because these are seafarers. These are just workers.”
The IMO has called the situation facing mariners an “unprecedented” humanitarian crisis, though conditions facing workers can vary considerably depending on the shipowner and whether they are unionised.
While seafarers on board vessels operated by major international shipping lines have been receiving hazard pay and other assistance, some seafarers working with smaller operations are struggling to get paid or have their basic needs met, according to Cotton and other seafarers’ advocates.
“The reality is you’ve got two kinds of shipping industries. One is the intercontinental trade – the big gas, the big oil, and the big containers. Then you’ve got the local trade supplying oil, food, water and moving it around the Gulf,” Cotton said, adding that smaller vessels often operate without unions or the “rigorous enforcement of international regulations”.
Saman Rezaei, general secretary of the ITF-affiliated Iranian Merchant Mariners Syndicate, said that many foreign seafarers in Iran work for “irregular agencies” that do not meet international standards.
Crew rotation has become a major pressure point for ships.
Under the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention – an international treaty ratified by 111 countries, including China, India, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom – the maximum time a seafarer can be required to serve on board is 12 months.
While seafarers have a legal right to leave their vessel beyond this period, unstable conditions have made repatriation a complicated and expensive prospect.
In some cases, especially on board large cargo ships still at sea, departing crew must first be replaced by incoming employees for safety reasons.
“With the ships unable to move and flights disrupted, many have had no choice but to remain on the ships even after their planned rotation,” John Bradford, a former US Navy officer and executive director of the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies in Japan, told Al Jazeera.
“This keeps them from their families and creates all sorts of social ripple effects even as they continue in a situation that is increasingly stressful.”
‘I told my crew how to run’
Steven Jones, the founder of the “Seafarer Happiness Index,” said seafarers’ self-reported wellbeing score has fallen about 5 percent during the war.
Seafarers have described seeing Iranian drones and missiles flying at low altitude, Jones said.
“One told us: ‘What scares me the most is the thought of an intercepted drone or missile falling on us,’” Jones, who is affiliated with the UK-based Mission to Seafarers charity, told Al Jazeera.
Other seafarers have reported dwindling food supplies and preparing escape plans, Jones said.
“Several senior officers say they have had to prepare evacuation plans for their teams: ‘I told my crew how to run, where to jump from, and what to carry if something happens,’” Jones said, quoting one seafarer.
Earlier this week, Trump announced that the US would begin guiding stranded ships out of the strait from Monday, before suspending the operation less than 48 hours later to pursue peace talks despite ongoing attacks in the waterway.
Even if the strait were to reopen tomorrow, trade flows would take some time to return to normal due to damaged regional infrastructure, maxed-out storage facilities across the Gulf and a backlog of exports, according to shipping and logistics experts.
For the stranded seafarers, there is also the question of finding a safe route out of the strait, where Iran has reportedly laid sea mines.
US officials told The New York Times last month that Tehran had laid the mines haphazardly and was unable to locate all of them.
“There has been a lot of speculation about more precise numbers, but the fact is that we don’t know; uncertainty is central to mine warfare, and creating uncertainty about risk is part of the point of conducting it,” Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at the US-based Rand Corporation who has studied naval mine warfare, told Al Jazeera.
Savitz said that it would be possible to establish an exit corridor in a few days, but clearing the strait of mines could take weeks or even months.
“Iran has stated that it has laid mines in and around the Strait of Hormuz, but it’s possible that they have laid them in other areas,” Savitz said.
The IMO announced in late April that it was working on an evacuation plan that prioritises ships based on humanitarian need, but that “all parties” involved in the conflict would need to refrain from attacks for such an operation to proceed.
“It’s a very dangerous moment,” the ITF’s Cotton said.
“We’re all saying the same – don’t transit unless you know it’s safe – but I don’t think anyone really knows what’s safe any more.”
The longer the war drags on, the higher the risk that ship operators will abandon their vessels without settling all outstanding pay, according to seafarers’ advocates.
“This is a longstanding problem in the region, and as cargo disputes arise or the mechanical condition of vessels deteriorate, then the temptation for ‘bad owners’ is to walk away,” Jones said.
Anish, the Indian seafarer, said he has not been paid by his Dubai-based agent for nine months.
He is supposed to receive a payment in US dollars later this month, but he is worried that his company may withhold the sum.
“My contract finish date is the 20th of May,” Anish said.
“Maybe the company will provide my salary after that,” he said. “I don’t know ”
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Iran’s hardline parliament speaker and key negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that Tehran would not honor its commitments under a newly signed memorandum with the U.S. if Washington fails to uphold its side of the deal, according to the media arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“If the United States does not honor its commitments, there is no way Iran will honor its own commitments,” Ghalibaf said.
Ghalibaf’s warning was echoed Thursday by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who threatened the U.S. in remarks translated by MEMRI TV, saying, “Americans should know their place and avoid confronting the Muslims.”
Qaani added that “Trump is trembling” and warned that the U.S. “should fear not only Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb, but many other locations as well.”
MEET IRAN’S HARDLINE SPEAKER WHO THREATENED TO BURN US FORCES — REPORTEDLY TEHRAN’S POINT MAN FOR TALKS
The warnings came after President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian Wednesday digitally signed a copy of the memorandum aimed at ending the war and resuming the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s hardline parliament speaker and key negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that Tehran would not honor its commitments under a newly signed memorandum with the U.S. if Washington fails to uphold its side of the deal. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA)
The memorandum gives Iran major economic relief while leaving some of the most difficult nuclear questions for a final agreement to be negotiated throughout the next 60 days. Under the 14-point plan read by a senior U.S. official, Washington agreed to begin lifting its naval blockade, work with regional partners on a $300 billion reconstruction and development plan for Iran and terminate U.S., U.N. and other sanctions on an agreed schedule as part of a final deal.
The memorandum also says all licenses, waivers and permissions needed for related financial transactions would be granted by the United States.
In return, Iran reaffirmed that it “shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons,” and the sides agreed to resolve the fate of Iran’s stockpiled enriched material under a future mechanism, with the minimum method being on-site down-blending under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision.
The agreement defers many of the hardest questions — including how to wind down Iran’s nuclear program — until the 60-day negotiation period for a final deal.
But the Iranian figure at the center of the deal is not a diplomat known for moderation.
Ghalibaf, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander and longtime regime insider, has threatened American forces, vowed Trump would “pay the price” and built his career through loyalty to Iran’s security establishment.
The new warning underscored what experts say is the central risk of the agreement. Washington may be entering a deal with officials who can enforce Iran’s commitments but who have shown little sign of changing the regime’s long-term posture toward the U.S., Israel or the region.
Ghalibaf, 64, is a product of Iran’s security establishment. He rose through the ranks of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the Iran-Iraq War, eventually becoming commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air force.
He later served as Iran’s national police chief, overseeing internal security forces responsible for suppressing protests, including the 1999 student uprising, alongside Qassem Soleimani.
After transitioning into politics, Ghalibaf attempted to run for president multiple times but failed. He instead built his career through loyalty to the system, serving as Tehran’s mayor for more than a decade before becoming speaker of parliament in 2020.
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Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf looks on as parliament members wearing military uniforms chant in support of the IRGC in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 1, 2026. (Hamed Malekpour/Islamic consultative assembly news agency/WANA/Handout via Reuters)
“Ghalibaf doesn’t have an independent line. His strength is that he is a ‘yes man,’” Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies, previously told Fox News Digital. “If he is told to shake hands with special envoy Steve Witkoff, he will do it. If he is told to escalate, he will. It is not about moderation, it is about who gives the orders.”
“His name has also been linked to multiple corruption allegations, including misuse of oil revenues and sanctions evasion networks involving his family. His sons have reportedly been involved and are under sanctions,” Sabti said.
“There have also been public scandals involving family members traveling abroad and making luxury purchases, including widely circulated images of them arriving with numerous high-end Gucci suitcases.”
Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the image of Ghalibaf at a signing ceremony with a senior U.S. official would be a propaganda victory for the regime.
“There was a time when the Islamic Republic would have been terrified to be seen signing such a thing,” Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. “Postwar, this is a sign of the regime’s opportunism, and no one identifies that opportunism better than someone like Ghalibaf, who comes from the IRGC, who is a corrupt politician and is a wheeler and dealer.”
But Taleblu warned that Washington should not confuse Ghalibaf’s opportunism with moderation.
“The mirage is the myth of Iranian military moderation and the myth that, with time, this regime will integrate and put aside all the things that have kept it on the sidelines for so long,” he said. “Transforming Iran via a deal — that is a huge lift.”
Ghalibaf’s wartime statements reflect the hardline posture inside Iran’s leadership. In remarks aired on Iranian television Jan. 12 and translated by MEMRI, he warned that U.S. forces would face catastrophic consequences if they confronted Iran.
“Come, so you can see what catastrophe befalls American bases, ships and forces,” he said, adding that American troops would be “burned by the fire of Iran’s defenders.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS SWEEPING TERMS OF PROPOSED IRAN AGREEMENT
A man lights a cigarette with fire from a burning picture of Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as Israelis rally in support of nationwide protests in Iran in Holon, Israel, on Jan. 14, 2026. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
More recently, he warned that “the blood of American soldiers is the personal responsibility of Trump” and vowed Iran would “settle accounts with the Americans and Israelis,” adding that “Trump and Netanyahu crossed our red lines and will pay the price.”
John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and a former national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, said Ghalibaf’s expected role reflects the reality of who holds power inside Iran.
“If you’re going to sign an agreement with Iran, those are the forces in charge and calling the shots, presumably with the approval of the new supreme leader,” Hannah told Fox News Digital. “If the U.S. harbors hope that Iran will ever implement any of their obligations under the MOU, these are the people — odious as they are — capable of making it happen.”
But Hannah said the central question is whether Iran’s leadership sees compliance as useful or whether the agreement is simply a tactical pause.
“The big question is whether they see it in their interest to do so, or are they only buying time, rebuilding their power and preparing for the next round of conflict,” he said.
Ben Taleblu was even more blunt, warning that even a seemingly favorable agreement would not change the nature of the regime.
“Even if you’ve got the perfect deal, with this kind of regime, with this kind of mentality, they will escalate,” he said. “I thought we would have learned by now what the regime did after the JCPOA. It built a vast missile arsenal. It literally built an empire of terror proxies that took Israel years of blood, effort and money to dismantle, backed by American support.
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Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 27, 2024. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters)
“If we engage in pay-to-play with these guys,” he added, “I’m sorry to sound the alarm bell like this — but something tells me this is bad either way.”
Responding to questions about the threats from Ghalibaf and IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, the White House defended Trump’s approach and warned Iran would face consequences if it failed to reach a final deal.
“President Trump has a great track record of good deals for the American people, and the President has been clear about the consequences if Iran fails to make a good, final deal,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told Fox News Digital.
“What the president has achieved on the battlefield and at the negotiating table is nothing short of remarkable and will strengthen American security for many years to come.”
Tehran holds back from talks to cement ceasefire due to ongoing Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon.
Published On 19 Jun 2026
Planned talks in Switzerland between the United States and Iran to discuss the technical terms of their ceasefire deal have been postponed.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed early on Friday that the talks, which were scheduled to take place in Burgenstock, would now not go ahead.
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Reports suggest that Iran has delayed sending its delegation to discuss the technical issues linked to the ceasefire deal – digitally signed by the two countries on Wednesday – due to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon.
Israeli strikes overnight and into Friday have reportedly killed at least 16 people in southern Lebanon, with Iran-linked Hezbollah reporting intense fighting.
Talks postponed
A ceremony followed by talks was expected to be held at the Burgenstock Resort in Stansstad, near Lucerne in central Switzerland.
It is owned by Katara Hospitality, part of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, which helped mediate peace in the conflict.
On Friday, in a message to media outlet AFP, the Swiss foreign ministry said: “The planned talks between the US, Iran, Qatar and Pakistan have been postponed”.
“Switzerland remains ready to facilitate these talks. The relevant preparatory work at Burgenstock is continuing,” it added, without providing a new date for the talks.
The announcement followed a report from media outlet Al-Mayadeen that Iran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s military will stay in a “security zone” of southern Lebanon as long as “Israel’s security needs require it.”
Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the agreement, but Iran has insisted Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying.
Logistics have never been ‘simple or predictable’
The US push to quickly begin high-stakes talks with Iran hit a snag just two days after the signing of a 14-point memorandum of understanding with the US that sets out a framework for talks during a 60-day negotiation period.
Vice President JD Vance had been prepared to make an overnight flight to meet with his Iranian counterparts at the mountainside resort in the tiny Swiss village of Obburgen.
His staff and a small pack of journalists had even gathered at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in anticipation of the trip.
Meanwhile, dozens of White House officials, advance staffers and more media gathered in Switzerland to prepare for Vance’s anticipated arrival.
But then, abruptly on Thursday evening, the trip was called off.
The White House issued a statement explaining Vance – who has been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the negotiations – and his delegation were prepared for talks, but they were unable to finalise plans and the vice president would remain in Washington.
“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the statement noted.
Also on Thursday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif cancelled his trip to Switzerland, his spokesperson told AFP.
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