AS IT HAPPENED: Chalmers flags war's impact on budget; Trump says US forcibly seized Iran-flagged ship near Strait of Hormuz; Pakistan and Iran top diplomats speak after Trump announces new talks; Trump's approval rating sinks

Thank you for joining us in our live coverage of the Middle East conflict. Here are the key events from today, April 20:

- The USA hit and seized an Iranian ship that tried to avoid a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. Multiple videos released show US Marines boarding the vessel, and Trump claimed, "our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom".

- The USA said they would commit to sending a delegation to Pakistan for another round of peace talks, though there has been no confirmation Iran will do the same. Nonetheless, Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, is preparing for the arrival of foreign dignitaries, which could be as early as tomorrow.

- Donald Trump's approval rate has fallen amid the war, with the strain showing on the president, who reportedly screamed at aides for hours after learning an F-15 was shot down, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal.

- Closer to home, Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned the war would have an impact on the budget set to be handed down next month. He said: "It won't be exactly what we planned over the summer... The consequences of this war in the Middle East are already serious, and there is still a risk that they become severe."

Iran is "fairly likely" to attend a second round of war talks in Pakistan this week despite the "volatile" situation in the Strait of Hormuz, a Qatari analyst told CNN.

US officials are expected to attend the Pakistan talks today. Tehran has not publicly confirmed it will send representatives to the meetings, with some state media outlets suggesting the talks may not happen, though Iranian sources told CNN a delegation will arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday.

"I think it's fairly likely we might see an Iranian delegation go," Rashid Al-Mohanadi, a nonresident fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told CNN on Monday.

"The strategic options in front of Iran have become quite limited," Al-Mohanadi added.

"Other than war, they only have negotiations on the table. I think the Iranians would like to negotiate, but they would like to negotiate on terms that, apparently, they still disagree on with the US."

The Head of Iran's forensic medicine organisation has claimed the death toll from the Iran war is now at at least 3375 people, according to Associated Press.

The conflict, which began on February 28, has been paused temporarily by a tensely observed ceasefire.

Penny Wong also said US President Donald Trump brought a sense of unpredictability to the Middle East conflict.

Speaking on Sky News, the foreign minister said: "We know that how President Trump envisages the role of America in the world differs very greatly from many past administrations."And I've also said one of the things that President Trump himself has said is one of his characteristics, or one of his tactics, is unpredictability.

"And we've certainly seen unpredictability."

She admitted it was an "inherently risky situation", but stopped short of saying Trump's nature would blow any plans for long-term peace.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia has received "a number of requests" to assist the defence of countries in the Middle East region, as well as the USA.

"We received a number of requests, including from the UAE and the United States, for the defence of regional countries," she said in an interview with Sky News.

"The request we determined to respond to was the United Arab Emirates, and so we have deployed our defensive capability for that purpose."

She did not say which other countries had requested support, or elaborate on what the United States had requested, though she insisted there had been no request for assistance in the Strait of Hormuz.

Last week, US President Donald Trump criticised Australia, among many other countries, for not assisting the USA in their initial campaign against Iran.

Hezbollah said it detonated explosives in an attack against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

The group said in a statement that bombs planted by Hezbollah fighters exploded and destroyed four tanks in a convoy of eight tanks that was passing the village of Deir Siryan.

It was the first claim of an attack by Hezbollah since a 10-day ceasefire went into effect last week.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Iran said it hanged two men it accused of setting fire to buildings on behalf of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

An Iranian exiled opposition group earlier claimed the men as members and alleged their charges stemmed from events that happened after they already had been detained.

The Mizan news agency of Iran's judiciary identified the men hanged as Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposition group identified Shahi as Nima Shahi.

The MEK said the men had been "subjected to interrogation and torture" and convicted over an incident that happened before their detention.

This brings to eight the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.

Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.

Despite Lebanon now being part of the ceasefire, citizens of the southern part of the country have been warned not to travel in restricted areas of the country.

This is because the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is still maintaining a military presence in the area, claiming they are disrupting "terrorist activities" by Hezbollah.

"For the sake of your safety and the safety of your families, and until further notice, you are required not to move south of the following villages and their surroundings," a statement from Avichay Adraee, IDF spokesperson, said on X, listing several villages included in the restricted area.

"Additionally, approaching the Litani River area, Wadi Salhani, and Salouqi is not permitted."

He also showed a map, where the entire border area between Israel and Lebanon is considered a restricted zone.

Israeli forces have been in southern Lebanon since April 8, when the ceasefire between the USA, Israel and Iran was originally implemented, though at the time it did not include Lebanon.

US Central Command has released more footage of US Marines boarding the M/V Touska after it tried to get around a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

In the small video clip, posted to X, helicopters are seen approaching the ship, as well as some marines rappelling from a helicopter on top of containers on the ship.

"The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 19, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska's propulsion when the commercial ship failed to comply with repeated warnings from US forces over a six-hour period," the post said.

A legal scholar says the United States seizing an Iranian ship that tried to get around a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is "shaky".

"There are some legal nuances to this, and it's sometimes very difficult to analyse legal specificity among a witches' brew of illegality and dubious legality," Dr Ian Ralby from the Centre for Maritime Strategy and a legal expert, told ABC NewsRadio.

"There's a whole challenge around what is and is not legal when so much of this is on shaky legal footing in the first place."

Ralby added that President Donald Trump's conflicting statements on the issue complicate matters.

"Even just the statement today that the blockade applies to the Strait of Hormuz conflicts with the US Navy's own statement about what the blockade is applied to," he said.

"I don't think anyone on this planet has a clear understanding of what a full success in terms of the result of this war would look like in the US mind."