(June 27): Bahrain said it had been targeted by Iran and a ship in the Strait of Hormuz was struck on Saturday afternoon as Tehran and Washington traded accusations that the other had violated the ceasefire.
That came after Iran claimed on Saturday that it had targeted US sites in the Persian Gulf following US strikes on Iranian missile storage and radar installations on Friday. Those were in response to an Iranian drone attack on a container ship in Hormuz on Thursday.
The back-and-forth threatens to unravel the fragile detente that had largely ended fighting in the Middle East, though an unnamed US official told CNN after the US strikes that they didn’t constitute a return to major combat operations for now.
Bahrain’s foreign ministry said a number of Iranian drones targeted the country early on Saturday morning, state-run BNA reported. It’s home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and Tehran has repeatedly targeted it and other Gulf states that host American military bases and thousands of troops since the US and Israel launched the war in late February.
A UK naval group on Saturday said a tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile in Hormuz, though vessel-tracking data show that multiple ships continued to transit the waterway using routes near the coasts of Iran and Oman on Saturday morning.
The Joint Maritime Information Center on Saturday raised the security threat in the Strait of Hormuz to “substantial” following the attacks on merchant vessels.
See also: Oman tells allies ships may have to pay to go through Hormuz — Bloomberg
Iran’s foreign ministry in a statement on Saturday called the US attack “an explicit violation of the first paragraph of the Memorandum of Understanding” the two countries signed earlier this month. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it had struck US sites in response, though it didn’t say which. US Central Command didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Iranian claims.
US Vice-President JD Vance said that the US had “honored” the deal.
“If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone,” he said on X on Friday. “But violence will be met with violence.”
See also: US protests China visa rules by snubbing Apec meet in Macau
Even as the broader US-Iran deal suffered a setback, there was some progress on a key sticking point — Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and fight with Tehran-backed Hezbollah, which has killed thousands. On Friday, the two countries and the US signed an initial agreement aimed at paving the way for ending the conflict and ultimately reaching a peace settlement.
Since signing a 60-day truce last week, US President Donald Trump has said that he would resume military action against Iran if it violates the agreement’s terms, which provide for the flow of vessels through the vital strait and talks over its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Now, the question is how much the resumption of strikes will slow progress towards restoring shipping traffic in the energy thoroughfare to pre-war levels. Washington and Tehran were able to agree to an interim peace deal last week despite trading strikes in the lead-up to that document being finalised.
Yet the two sides continue to clash over key provisions of the deal, including whether Iran will impose tolls or other monetary costs on ships seeking to sail through Hormuz. Oman told European officials that vessels may ultimately have to be charged some fees, Bloomberg reported earlier.
Trump’s decision to attack demonstrates that he’s willing to use military force to maintain freedom of navigation in the strait. But Iran’s attack also shows that it’s seeking to maintain control of the waterway, which it largely shut after the war began on Feb 28, becoming its greatest point of leverage with the US as it roiled the global economy.
The drone attack rattled the fragile confidence of shipowners and crews. Tehran has repeatedly said that ships can’t pass Hormuz without its permission, and a handful of tankers turned around early on Thursday after reportedly getting warnings from the Iranian Navy.
Central Command said in its statement Friday that it would “continue to provide safe passage coordination and support to commercial vessels transiting the strait”.
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