US Insists Strait of Hormuz Is Open After Strikes With Iran

The United States insisted the Strait of Hormuz is open as it exchanged strikes with Iran, after Iran said it had closed the waterway amid renewed fighting.

Hostilities flared again this week and continued on Saturday after the US said it had struck more than 140 targets across Iran, while early on Sunday Iran said the strait was closed until further notice.

Aajil

US Central Command said its strikes would "continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait of Hormuz" and that it hit 140 Iranian military targets, including missile and drone sites, communication networks, and coastal surveillance locations.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also launched wide-ranging attacks on US bases and allies across the region on Sunday, saying it hit a US base in Jordan and that the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain responded to missiles and drones from Iran.

In the same escalation, Iran’s IRNA said missiles were launched by the "enemy" towards Qeshm Island, a strategically important island in the Gulf, home to an important IRGC base.

The dispute over whether traffic is moving through Hormuz sharpened as US officials rejected Iran’s closure claim, with US Central Command saying "Traffic is flowing" even as Iran’s IRGC declared the strait of Hormuz closed.

President Donald Trump told NBC’s "Meet the Press" that the passageway is "open" and said, "We bombed the hell out of them last night," contradicting Tehran’s warnings that the strait remains closed.

Al-Jazeera Net

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the US of violating the deal, while the BBC reported that the US had approached US Central Command (Centcom) for comment on the attack in Jordan.

DW reported UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the United States and Iran to end the current outbreak of fighting and resume talks, quoting his statement: "These attacks must stop."

The BBC also reported that Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks, had not been attacked since April, while the UAE had not been attacked since May, as the latest fire put in jeopardy an interim ceasefire agreement signed last month.

The renewed fire threatened an interim ceasefire agreement signed last month aimed to reopen the Strait and eventually bring a permanent end to the conflict, as the BBC said the latest hostilities were sparked after the IRGC fired a naval cruise missile at a vessel using an unapproved route.

“The US launches more strikes on Iran as the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz escalates The US launches more strikes on Iran as the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz escalates DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States launched several waves of strikes on Iran on Sunday over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing earlier in the weekend”

AP News

In the BBC’s account, US Central Command said the IRGC "blatantly attacked" a Cyprus-flagged vessel, and added that a crew member from the MV GFS Galaxy ship was missing after the vessel was unable to continue its journey due to damage to the engine room.

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

The Guardian also quoted Mohsen Rezaee, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, saying: "This strategic passage is more important than dozens of atomic bombs, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will protect it."

As the standoff worsened, AP reported that the US launched several waves of strikes on Sunday over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing, while Iran responded with attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman.