Commercial ships came under fire and threats from Iran’s military as they tried to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, security monitors said, as Iran closed the crucial trade route again following a brief reopening.
Iran reversed its pledge to reopen the strait to commercial traffic during a ceasefire in the Middle East war in protest at an ongoing US counter-blockade of the route, a crucial passage for commodity shipments.
US president Donald Trump on Saturday warned Iran not to ‘blackmail’ Washington with its flip-flopping on the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran declared the strategic waterway once again closed.
‘We’re talking to them. They wanted to close up the strait again—you know, as they’ve been doing for years—and they can’t blackmail us,’ Trump said at a White House event.
Trump said there would be ‘some information’ about Iran later in the day, adding: ‘We’re taking a tough stand.’
A UK maritime security agency said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fired at a tanker, while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported the force threatened to ‘destroy’ an empty cruise ship that was fleeing the Gulf after Tehran on Friday announced a brief respite.
A handful of oil and gas tankers crossed the strait early Saturday during the brief reopening, tracking data showed, but others retreated and tracking platforms showed hardly any vessels crossing the waterway by the late afternoon.
IRGC gunboats fired on the tanker in the strait northeast of Oman, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said in an online statement, adding the vessel and crew were safe.
Vanguard identified the tanker as the India-flagged tanker Sanmar Herald.
It cited the captain as saying two IRGC patrol boats approached it with no radio contact and ‘shots were fired, resulting in damage to the bridge windows’.
Vanguard said separately that the Malta-flagged cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 reported a splash nearby while crossing near Oman, on the far side of the strait from Iran.
‘The Master confirmed VHF, radio, traffic from IRGC units stating ‘we are carrying out operation, we will fire and destroy you,’’ but no damage was reported, Vanguard said.
In a third incident, the UKMTO said that it also received a report of a container ship in the same area ‘being hit by an unknown projectile which caused damage to some of the containers’ but no fire.
Iran’s central military command on Saturday appeared to reverse the decision to reopen the route, saying it would resume ‘strict management’ of the strait because of the continued US naval counter-blockade.
No date has been set for the next round of Iran–US peace talks brokered by Pakistan following the failure of an initial round, Iran’s deputy foreign minister said.
‘Until we agree on the framework, we cannot set a date,’ Saeed Khatibzadeh told journalists on the sidelines of an annual diplomatic forum in Turkey’s southern Antalya province. ‘We hope that as soon as we can finalise that, then we can move on to the next step’.
Iran dismissed US threats of fresh military action, with the senior Iranian official saying that Washington’s statements were inconsistent.
‘The American side tweets a lot, talks a lot. Sometimes confusing, sometimes, you know, contradictory,’ Khatibzadeh said, referring to Trump and his frequent social media posts.
Meanwhile, in a written message, Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was yet to be seen since taking power, said Iran’s navy ‘stands ready’ to defeat the United States.
Egypt, which has also been involved in diplomatic efforts, also appeared upbeat on Saturday, with foreign minister Badr Abdelatty saying Cairo and Islamabad hoped to secure a final agreement ‘in the coming days’.
He was speaking at the same event in Antalya as Khatibzadeh, who insisted no date had been set for the next round of direct talks.
In a sign that the two-week ceasefire remained stable, Iran’s civil aviation agency declared its airspace was open again, with international flights able to transit Iran via the east of the country.
Ordinary Iranians, meanwhile, remained cut off from the international internet, with monitor Netblocks announcing on Saturday that the blackout implemented at the start of the war had reached its 50th day.
