TEHRAN- Pakistan announced on Monday that it had facilitated the transfer of 22 crew members from an Iranian commercial vessel seized last month by the United States Navy, describing the move as a "confidence-building measure" coordinated with both Washington and Tehran.

The crews of the MV Touska, an Iranian-flagged container ship, were flown to Pakistan on Sunday and are expected to be handed over to Iranian authorities, according to Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Iranian media later reported that at least 15 of the crew members had already arrived back in Iran.

The ship itself will also be moved to Pakistani territorial waters for necessary repairs before being returned to its owners, Islamabad said.

The development comes more than two months into a turbulent military confrontation between the United States and Iran that has reshaped the strategic waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. A fragile ceasefire brokered by Pakistan has largely halted the ground and air war, but the naval front remains active — and highly volatile.

The Touska was seized by US forces in the Arabian Sea on April 19, less than a week after President Donald Trump announced a full naval blockade on Iranian ports. The blockade was ordered despite Trump's own declaration of a ceasefire in what his administration had called a campaign to curb Iran's regional influence.

US Central Command said at the time that the Touska had tried to evade the blockade. A US Navy destroyer fired on the ship's engine room after repeated warnings, disabling it, before American forces boarded and seized the vessel.

 Trump later acknowledged that the US Navy was acting "like pirates" in enforcing the blockade — a remark that Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, seized upon as a rare moment of candor.

"This was no verbal slip," Baqaei wrote on X. "It was a direct and damning admission of the criminal nature of their actions against international maritime navigation."

The blockade has emerged as a centerpiece of the Trump administration's post-ceasefire strategy toward Iran. Critics, particularly in Tehran and among international observers, have described the policy as a deliberate shift away from diplomacy and toward economic strangulation — one that has dangerously escalated tensions in the world's most critical oil chokepoint.

Iranian officials have repeatedly condemned the seizure of its commercial vessels as acts of piracy and have warned that Tehran reserves the right to take "due defensive countermeasures."
The Islamic Republic has also refused to return to any form of negotiation with Washington as long as the blockade remains in place.

On Monday, in announcing the crew transfer, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, expressed appreciation to both the United States and Iran, and reaffirmed his country's commitment to "facilitating dialogue, diplomacy, and mediation for regional peace and security."

Despite the diplomatic gestures, the broader confrontation shows few signs of abating. More than 50,000 US troops remain deployed in the region, and gasoline prices in the United States have surged as the blockade tightens global oil supplies.

For Iran, the Touska episode is not an isolated incident but part of a wider pattern. Several Iranian vessels have been seized or stopped by US forces since the blockade began. Each such incident, Iranian officials warn, brings the region closer to a new and unpredictable escalation.