At least three vessels have been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, just hours after Donald Trump offered to extend a ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran.
An Iranian gunboat opened fire and launched rocket-propelled grenades at a Liberia-flagged container ship on Wednesday morning, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO).
It said a second ship was also fired upon later as it left the Strait, though it did not identify who carried out the attack.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) opened fire on the first ship, a container vessel that was located in the middle of the Strait about 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman, at 7.55am local time (4.25am GMT), according to the UKMTO.
The UKMTO said the IRGC gunboat did not hail the ship before firing, while Iran’s state media claimed that the vessel “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces”. The vessel sustained heavy damage, the centre said, but no casualties or environmental impact were reported.
The second ship was not damaged and its crew were safe and accounted for, the UKMTO said. It was stopped in the water around 8 nautical miles off the coast of Iran. The Panama-flagged vessel was not damaged, it added.
Maritime security sources told Reuters that a third container ship was fired upon about eight nautical miles west of Iran while transiting outbound of the Strait of Hormuz. The Liberia-flagged vessel, which was not damaged, had stopped in the water. Its crew were safe, the sources said.
Iran’s Fars News Agency claimed Tehran was “lawfully enforcing” its control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil and natural gas traded once passed.
Prior to the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran the strait had been considered an international waterway for the world’s shippers, despite being in the territorial waters of both Iran and Oman.
The attacks came after the US seized an Iranian container ship at the weekend and boarded an oil tanker associated with Iran’s oil trade in the Indian Ocean.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump said the US would indefinitely extend a ceasefire with Iran, which had been due to expire on Wednesday, to give Tehran time to come up with a “unified proposal” ahead of possible negotiations.
He said the US would continue its blockade of Iranian ports in the meantime, a measure which Iran has called “unacceptable” and indicated was a reason it had not yet agreed to resume peace talks in Islamabad.
“Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open so they can make $500 Million Dollars a day (which is, therefore, what they are losing if it is closed!). They only say they want it closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!), so they merely want to ‘save face’,” Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
In a separate post after midnight, the US president claimed that Iran was “collapsing financially”. “They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!”
The IRGC, which is separate from the Iranian army, on Wednesday vowed to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets in the region”.
The IRGC “remains at peak readiness and determination to continue the fight, prepared for a decisive, certain and immediate response to any threat or renewed aggression,” the statement added.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has called the US blockade a breach of the ceasefire and said “striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation”.
The US military last week announced it had widened its efforts beyond the blockade of Iran’s ports to allow its forces around the world to stop any ship tied to Tehran or those suspected of aiding Iran.
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