Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on the 2nd (local time) that it attacked a merchant ship passing through the Gulf waters (Persian Gulf) with a cruise missile in retaliation against the United States.
The IRGC told Iran's official Tasnim news agency, "In retaliation for the US attack on the Iranian ship Lion Star in the Gulf of Oman, the IRGC Navy attacked the US-Israeli ship MSC Sariska with a cruise missile."
According to the UK Maritime Trade Organization (UKMTO) the previous day, a cargo ship sailing in the Gulf waters about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Iraq's Um Qasr port was hit by an unidentified projectile and exploded. The IRGC appears to have revealed that it was the perpetrator of the attack.
MSC is a shipping company based in Switzerland, and its container ship, MSC Sariska, is shipped to Panama.
Tasnim News explained the connection between this ship and Israel, saying, "MSC's founder and owner, the Aponte family, is of Israeli descent, and co-founder Rafaela Aponte Daamang was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1945."
He continued, “For this reason, many analysts view MSC as an Italian-Israeli conglomerate. MSC has established offices in Haifa and Ashdod, Israel, and transports 600,000 TEU (1 TEU is one 20-foot container) of cargo to Israeli ports every year.”
In addition, the connection with the United States was highlighted, saying that there was a record of 94 port calls at 13 U.S. ports between 2012 and 2024.
The US attack on its own ship mentioned by the IRGC appears to refer to the US military firing a missile at a Gambia-flagged merchant ship sailing from the Gulf of Oman to an Iranian port on the 30th of last month.
At the time, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement that the merchant ship was "spotted transiting international waters from the Gulf of Oman toward an Iranian port, and the vessel was notified of violation of the U.S. maritime blockade and sent more than 20 warnings," and fired a missile to neutralize the vessel.
While negotiations with the United States to end the war have stalled due to differences of opinion, Iran is continuing to attack with force and simultaneously seek diplomatic solutions with Middle Eastern countries.
According to the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 1st, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi spoke on the phone with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and discussed the regional situation.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry said Prime Minister Al Thani reaffirmed Qatar's support for reaching a comprehensive agreement to resolve the crisis during the call and urged all parties to engage constructively in mediation efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability.
It has also been analyzed that since the outbreak of this war, Iran has so far damaged 20 U.S. military facilities.
The British BBC reported on the 1st that, based on its own analysis of satellite photos and videos, Iran has attacked major facilities across eight Middle Eastern countries since the end of February, causing millions of dollars in damage to the U.S. military's cutting-edge air defense missile system, airborne early warning and control system, and radar.
As a result of the BBC's cross-analysis of images from satellite photo providers, it was found that Iran has attacked and damaged US military facilities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, and Oman since the start of the war in late February. Some analysts estimated that Iran hit as many as 28 U.S. military facilities.
It was revealed that among the expensive U.S. military equipment damaged by Iran's attack, there were three air defense missile systems in the Middle East, including the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployed at Al-Ruwais Base in the UAE.
In addition, damaged U.S. military assets confirmed through satellite photos included the E-3 early warning and control aircraft at Prince Sultan Base in Saudi Arabia.
Satellite image analysis showed that fuel tank bunkers, hangars, and satellite communication equipment at Kuwait's Ali Al-Salem Air Force Base and Arifjan Base were also damaged.
U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that the Iranian military suffered damage close to annihilation in the U.S. airstrikes, but experts say that the scale of damage to U.S. military assets in the Middle East suggests that Iran's counterattack was more precise and extensive than previously known.
The BBC reported that Pentagon officials declined to comment on the BBC's analysis, citing operational security reasons.
