The fragile truce between US and Iran saw another blow even though efforts have been made from all parties for the continuation of ceasefire.
The US military has conducted strikes on Iranian targets after President Donald Trump accused Iran of a violation of its truce following an attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command said it had struck missile and drone storage facilities and coastal radar positions.
The strikes were in response for a drone attack on a cargo ship, an incident which halted a planned evacuation of thousands of sailors stuck in the region.
Tehran said the cargo ship was attacked because it was using an unauthorised route to transit through the vital Gulf waterway.
Centcom said the US military would “continue to provide safe passage coordination and support to commercial vessels transiting the strait”. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) blamed the “treaty-breaking US regime”. It said the US had launched an airstrike on Iran’s coast “under various pretexts of a ship violating an unauthorised route in the Strait of Hormuz”. The IRGC said its navy had retaliated by striking US military positions in the region, without providing further details. “If the aggression is repeated our response will be more extensive than this,” the IRGC added.
The US and Iran agreed on 17 June to end hostilities under a 14-point memorandum of understanding, which had also called for Iran to use its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days.
In a post on X following the US retaliatory strikes, Vice-President JD Vance said that if Iran “has disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone”. “But violence will be met with violence,” he added.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, said on social media that the US had “attacked Iran in the middle of negotiations once again”.
He continued in his social media post: “This reckless violation of the ceasefire will, as always, lead to retreat and regret on their part. The blame game does not work anymore.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House Trump refused to be drawn into questions on how the US might respond to the drone attack, or whether he viewed the ceasefire as still intact. “You’ll find out,” he said. “I don’t like the fact that they took a shot yesterday. They shouldn’t be doing that.” Asked why he believed Iran would conduct such an operation, Trump said only that “they’re a little bit different”.
In recent days, Trump and other US officials insisted negotiations with Iran were progressing well, saying Iran had given up any suggestion of tolling vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump said Iran had informed the US that there would be “no tolls, no insurance costs and no other charges of any kind being sought or received”.
