Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it set an LPG tanker on fire. The same day, Pakistan says Washington and Tehran are still talking. Quick context first. A provisional US-Iran deal collapsed in June, and talks have been stuck ever since. Washington wants a meaningful cut to Iran's uranium enrichment, and mediators are carrying messages back and forth. Earlier this week, Iran's President Pezeshkian told Vladimir Putin both sides had swapped new proposals to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran had made revisions. This is Iran War Daily. Seven points on the table, and nobody's said out loud what they are. Plus Yemen's Taiz is under siege again, with food and fuel climbing. We start at sea, with CENTCOM's count from the US blockade. This story isn't over: US-Iran deal negotiations. Follow us wherever you're listening, and the next chapter comes to you. Here's Shafaq News:
Earlier on Friday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy warned that shipping companies complying with US instructions could face sanctions, threatening to pursue vessels using routes Tehran considers unauthorized, even beyond the strait. The IRGC also claimed responsibility for striking the Vietnam-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier NV Sunshine after it allegedly attempted to use an unauthorized southern passage through Hormuz, causing a major fire in the ship’s engine room and propulsion system.
CENTCOM's blockade count was 130 last edition. It's 133 now. And Iran's Guards say they've set a gas carrier on fire. A Vietnam-flagged LPG ship, the NV Sunshine, hit in the engine room and propulsion for using what Tehran calls an unauthorized southern passage. Keep those two apart. The 133 is CENTCOM's own tally, posted Friday. The NV Sunshine strike is the IRGC claiming responsibility, and I haven't seen it independently confirmed. For an independent check, there's Reuters: at least 12 attacks, attempted strikes or harassment incidents near Hormuz between September 28 and October 5, per maritime security sources. And Kpler counted seven commodity vessels crossing on October 6, the lowest since July 23. Seven. So now you've got two navies each deciding which lane is legal. Washington redirects you. Tehran says if you comply with Washington, you face sanctions, and they'll chase you beyond the strait. Somebody's paying for the diverted voyage and the burned-out engine room, and it isn't the admirals. What's new is who's being threatened. The Guards are going after the shipping companies now, not just the hulls. Crude's still moving at around 10.1 million barrels a day, roughly three-quarters of pre-war, per Kpler via Reuters. So it's squeezed, but it hasn't stopped. Yet. Daily Times writes:
Pakistan has revealed that the United States and Iran are holding discussions on seven key points to resolve their dispute. Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan shared the update during a weekly media briefing in Islamabad. He said Washington has also shared its position on Iran’s seven points. Pakistan-mediated US-Iran talks are continuing as Islamabad seeks to reduce tensions and support a peaceful resolution.
Seven points. Pakistan's Foreign Office says Washington and Tehran are working through seven of them, and the US has 'shared its position' on Iran's list. Meanwhile CENTCOM's turning back 133 ships, like we just heard. You can share a position for months without agreeing to a thing. And mind who's talking. This is Sajjad Haider Khan at Islamabad's weekly briefing. Washington hasn't said it, Tehran hasn't said it. So it partly answers whether the US is engaging with Iran's proposals, but only from the mediator's chair. Right, and the Qatari channel's been carrying messages since the June deal collapsed over enrichment. Now Pakistan says it brokered direct talks too. So did Iran's answer actually land, or have we just got two mediators each claiming the phone line? Plus an Islamabad memorandum that's supposed to sit comfortably next to a blockade. What I want is the list. Until now, Pezeshkian was the only one describing the text. Now a second party's describing the talks, and Khan says some of the points line up with that memorandum. Is the nuclear file one of the seven? I'm not guessing until someone says so on the record. This one's from Al Jazeera:
Even as government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, began a counteroffensive in early October and regained some of the territory lost, the Houthis pressed forward in the countryside surrounding Taiz. The Houthis successfully captured the town of al-Turbah by October 4, severing the only remaining main road between Taiz city and other government-held areas. Taiz residents, like Abdullah, are now worried that the city is about to face a prolonged full-scale siege.
Taiz. The Houthis took al-Turbah by October fourth and cut the last main road into the city. Call it a siege, because it is one. Al Jazeera, citing a local planning official, puts 2.8 million residents inside, two hundred thousand of them recently displaced. And for some of them it's a repeat. Al Jazeera spoke to Iskandar Abdullah, thirty-seven, who lived through the 2015-to-2016 siege. He says he hoped those days would never come back. I'd keep this one apart from the Hormuz tally and the Islamabad readout we just did. Nobody in Taiz is waiting on seven points. Apart, sure. But wait. The same offensive grabbed Mocha and Dhubab, and that's Bab al-Mandeb, twelve percent of global trade. So while two navies argue over Hormuz lanes, the Red Sea gate's already in Houthi hands. Saudi-backed government forces have clawed some of that coast back this month, per Al Jazeera. But not the road. And inside the city, food and fuel prices are already climbing. Got feedback, a story idea, or a correction? Email us at iranwardaily at lantern podcasts dot com. We'd love to hear what you're noticing and what you want us to dig into.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so check out the ones that caught your eye when you've got a moment. That's Iran War Daily for today. We'll be back with the next episode. This is a Lantern Podcast.