Thursday, April 9, 2026
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Maersk: Announced ceasefire between Iran and U.S.
Maersk Operations updates on situation in the Middle East
08 April, 2026
We welcome the announced ceasefire and the public statements that commercial passage through the Strait of Hormuz may again be possible – albeit for now for a limited period. Information and details available remain very limited and we are working with urgency to obtain further clarity.
The ceasefire may create transit opportunities, but it does not yet provide full maritime certainty, and we need to understand all potential conditions attached. The safety of our seafarers, vessels and cargo remains Maersk’s highest priority.
Any decision to transit the Strait of Hormuz will be based on continuous risk assessments, close monitoring of the security situation, and available guidance from relevant authorities and partners.
What this means for cargo in the region
Visibility for now is low and we expect that the situation will remain dynamic. At this point, we are taking a cautious approach, and we are not making any changes to specific services. We continue to assess the implications of the ceasefire, and we will communicate directly about potential impacts to schedules, routing, or contingency measures as soon as possible.
Whilst the ceasefire is a positive step towards to stability, the situation in the region remains volatile. We will continue to monitor developments closely and provide updates as greater clarity emerges over the coming days. We encourage you to stay in close dialogue with your local Maersk representatives for the latest guidance on your cargo, as well as continue to check our page on the situation here, for more information on alternative solutions like landbridges and air options.
China Produces "Baby Shahed" Kamikaze Drones For $500
China's manufacturing base is now churning out short-range, low-cost kamikaze drones priced at under $500 per unit, which X user PLA Military Updates has described as "Baby Shahed" drones.
According to the post, the so-called Baby Shahed costs around 3,000 yuan (about $450), has a range of 20 to 30 kilometers, flies at roughly 200 kilometers per hour, and can be launched by hand or from a rack. These drones could even be launched from a box truck or shipping containers.
PLA Military Updates said the Baby Shaheds are produced by the Chinese civilian drone company FLYControl. More importantly, the platform appears to confirm that China's civilian drone manufacturing base has the capacity to produce not only these smaller one-way attack drones, but also larger, low-cost kamikaze drones based on Iranian and Russian designs that cost around $20,000 each.
These suicide drones have become critical in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the US-Iran conflict (currently at a ceasefire) because their low cost and maneuverability via swarming enable them to inflict severe damage on high-value assets, exposing a massive security gap.
The key lesson is that countries seeking deterrence will likely move to stockpile these drones in the millions. The U.S. revealed in recent weeks that it adopted Iran's drone playbook and deployed a Shahed-style system against Tehran.
As low-cost drones proliferate on the modern battlefield, the economics of war are changing forever. Relying on expensive interceptor missiles to counter cheap one-way attack drones is not sustainable in the long run. That is why low-cost interceptor drones and more affordable counter-UAS systems are likely to gain significant attention from the Department of War, especially after the last six weeks exposed glaring security gaps at U.S. bases and even civilian infrastructure, such as data centers, energy plants, residential towers, and water desalination plants across the Gulf.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/china-produces-baby-shahed-kamikaze-drones-500
Double-dealing Pakistan is the danger looming over critical US-Iran talks
President Donald Trump’s two-week cease-fire with Iran is a huge gamble — and allowing Pakistan to act as the go-between only raises the stakes.
Pakistan, after all, is the nation where Osama bin Laden found refuge for a decade after the 9/11 massacres.
It’s where the Taliban enjoyed sanctuary for 20 years while continuing to kill US and NATO troops on its way back to power in Afghanistan.
And today, Pakistan serves as China’s regional agent.
Tehran, with Islamabad’s help, has offered a 10-point plan as a baseline for negotiations.
But it’s a bad deal that the US shouldn’t take seriously.
Iran isn’t offering concessions on its ballistic missile program, or pledging to unwind its web of terror proxies across the region.
There’s no commitment to dismantle militias, halt weapons transfers or roll back threats to US forces and allies.
Instead, Tehran is demanding sweeping sanctions relief, an economic lifeline that would pour billions back into regime coffers.
On the most critical issue, nuclear enrichment, Tehran demands the right to enrich uranium as it pleases, with no set limits on how far it can go.
That’s an obvious non-starter, preserving Iran’s potential path to a nuclear weapon.
It should be a tip-off that the entire offer has been made in bad faith.
Yet Trump has allowed Pakistan to position itself as the bridge between the US and Iran ahead of negotiations in Islamabad this weekend.
For its own reasons, Pakistan does want peace, but a peace that favors Iran.
It’s acting less as an honest broker — and more as Tehran’s lawyer.
Under Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief and de facto ruler, Islamabad has moved to ingratiate itself with Trump.
Last year it handed over a suspect tied to the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 US servicemembers during the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, and nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Pakistan has also taken a seat at the table of the Board of Peace — Trump’s effort to remake Gaza into a hub of “opportunity, hope, and vitality” — in its continuing effort to curry favor with Trump and cash in on his Middle East vision.
Trump had a clearer view of Pakistan in his first term.
In 2018, he complained that despite receiving $33 billion of US aid over 15 years, Islamabad delivered only “lies and deceit.”
Correctly, Trump added, “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Trump should recall that instinct now as Pakistan seeks to broker a deal that will shield Tehran from sustained American military pressure.
Pakistan and Iran share a porous border that runs through insurgency-plagued regions.
A destabilized Iran would spill violence and refugees across that frontier and intensify militant activity that Pakistan already struggles to contain.
At the same time, Pakistan depends heavily on Gulf energy imports.
Disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has severely weakened its economy.
Islamabad’s defense ties with Saudi Arabia are another reason why Pakistan wants to end this war.
Continued Iranian attacks on Saudi territory could force Islamabad to choose between friends, risking backlash at home.
Pakistan has the second-largest Shiite Muslim population in the world after Iran, and the war is already inflaming sectarian tensions: Violent protests erupted in Karachi and elsewhere last month following the death of Ali Khamenei.
More important, though, is Pakistan’s increasingly close alignment with China.
Islamabad operates Beijing’s most advanced weapon systems and trains closely with the People’s Liberation Army.
Pakistan anchors China’s strategic footprint in the Indian Ocean, giving Beijing access to critical maritime routes and a position near key global energy corridors.
China, for its own economic benefit, is intent on restoring stable energy flows from the Gulf, and it’s also sought to position itself as a guarantor of regional energy stability in Asia, a role long dominated by the United States.
Beijing has publicly backed Pakistan’s mediation effort, using its ties with Tehran to nudge it toward negotiations.
That pressure is meant to secure an arrangement that pauses the war while protecting the regime itself.
In his first term, Trump experienced Pakistan’s unreliability up close.
Islamabad in 2020 helped bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, earning credit as a facilitator.
That deal supposedly included provisions that would prevent al Qaeda from taking advantage of US concessions — but turned out to be merely window dressing.
The agreement paved the way for the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
The risks of a bad deal with Tehran are enormous — and even a delay in the negotiations would give the regime time to rearm itself and its proxies, enabling them to resume attacks with greater precision.
A durable peace must halt the Iranian nuclear threat for good and terminate its five-decade campaign of subversion and intimidation of its neighbors.
A dishonest broker like Pakistan has no business being at that table.
Ahmad Sharawi is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.