Iran Closes Strait of Hormuz Amid Hostilities with US

Iran has declared the strait of Hormuz closed after six days of hostilities with the US, reversing an agreement signed last month that was intended to restore maritime traffic through the waterway and pave the way for a broader peace deal.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the closure on Sunday after an intense exchange of aerial bombardment with the US, although the US said some ships were continuing to cross the waterway.

“Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing,” US central command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East, said on X.

After Iran struck a Cypriot-flagged container ship, Centcom said on Saturday night its forces had hit 140 Iranian military targets “to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the ​strait”.

Its statement said the targets had included missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations.

Iran launched retaliatory drone and missile attacks across the region, saying it was targeting US bases in neighbouring Arab countries. There were reports of aerial attacks in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman.

The IRGC claimed to have destroyed “the logistical support centres for naval vessels and the refuelling facilities for US aircraft carriers at the port of Duqm in Oman”. Without confirming details on the damage, Oman condemned the attack, which came just hours after the sultanate hosted an Iranian delegation for talks on security in the strait.

The Cypriot-flagged ship had been travelling through the strait on a southerly route along the Omani shoreline, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre, a British military body, when the vessel was struck, disabled and its crew forced to take to lifeboats. The Indian government said 10 of its nationals from the ship had been rescued but that one remained missing. It called for “free and unimpeded” navigation through the strait.

The IRGC said several vessels had “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route”. One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop”, it added.

The strait would remain closed until the “end of US interference”, the IRGC said, adding that it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more American attacks.

On Sunday, it claimed to have intercepted and disabled a second ship and carried out ballistic missile strikes on the US airbase ‌at Al Udeid in Qatar, destroying ⁠a fighter jet ​maintenance centre ​and ​command ​and ‌control ​facility. There was no US confirmation of the damage.

The US-Iranian memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on 17 June extended a ceasefire in the war by 60 days to allow the restoration of trade through the strait and create breathing space for talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and sanctions relief, the main points of contention between Iran and the west.

Apart from some indirect technical talks, those negotiations have failed to materialise, and fighting continued between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was supposed to be covered by the agreement.

The MoU started to unravel when Iran attacked three commercial vessels on Monday night as they were crossing the strait along a southern route next to the Omani coast that the Iranians had not approved. This drew US missile attacks in response, beginning almost a week of tit-for-tat exchanges.

The return of hostilities rattled global markets, though the price for Brent crude oil was $75 a barrel going into the weekend, well down from wartime highs of more than $120 and close to its prewar average. The latest price appears to reflect traders’ belief that the US and Iran want to avoid a return to full-scale war, and that the global economy is adapting to the prolonged uncertainty over the strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command said ships were continuing to transit the waterway along the southern route. Tehran is determined that any long-term settlement in the region recognises its control over the strait, which it seized soon after the US-Israel attack on Iran in February.

On Sunday, Mohsen Rezaee, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was quoted in state media as saying: “This strategic passage is more important than dozens of atomic bombs, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will protect it.”

In last month’s MoU, Tehran undertook to “make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days”, leaving the question of tolls or fees on shipping after that period to be agreed later.

With an eye to maintaining its leverage, Iran has said it will allow seaborne traffic to flow without payment during the ceasefire but only in coordination with Iranian authorities and along an approved route close to the country’s coast.

There were talks in Oman on Saturday between Iranian and Omani officials aimed at agreeing on passage along the southern route, but so far they have not led to an agreement. Regime hardliners in Tehran have resisted compromises on what they see as Iran’s biggest strategic gain from the war.

In a possible illustration of the splits within the Tehran regime, Oman was bombed soon after the Iranian delegation led by the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had left Muscat.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters ​that Iran, the US, Qatar and Pakistan had agreed to negotiate in a call that ‌mediators were trying to arrange for Saturday while Araghchi was still in Oman. It was not immediately clear whether the efforts had borne fruit before the IRGC began bombing Omani targets.

Amid the continuing diplomatic efforts, the leaders of both sides have exchanged bellicose rhetoric. Khamenei vowed revenge for the killing of his father and predecessor.

“Vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out,” Iran’s new supreme leader said in a written message, his first since the funeral of his father, Ali Khamenei, last week. He said Iran had compiled a list of individuals to be targeted.

A few hours earlier Trump had posted on his Truth Social platform that any attempt to assassinate him would lead the US to “completely decimate” Iran.

“1000 missiles are locked and loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!” Trump wrote.