DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said it is again treating the Strait of Hormuz as closed after a vessel traveling through what it called an “unauthorized route” was hit by a warning shot in the vital waterway, a move that further strains an already fragile ceasefire arrangement with the United States.
Soon afterward, U.S. Central Command announced that American forces had launched a third wave of strikes against Iran.
“The United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait,” the military said.
U.S. Central Command said a Cyprus-flagged container vessel targeted by Iran sustained “significant engineroom damage,” and that one civilian crew member remains missing.
Senior U.S. officials in Washington had earlier warned that talks aimed at reinforcing last month’s agreement to halt the war could not move forward unless the strait was secure. They had also indicated they expected Iran to make public assurances on the issue.
Instead, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in an online statement Saturday that it had fired warning shots at a “violating ship.” Iranian officials also said the strait would remain closed until further notice.
The developments came after the foreign ministers of Iran and Oman met Saturday to discuss the strategic strait between their countries, following days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliatory action that undermined the interim deal meant to end the war.
Iran’s new supreme leader, who has not been seen publicly since the war began, also issued his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowing that Iranians would avenge his death in the conflict’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.
Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks.
Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels,” a day after the United States called on Iran to publicly say the crucial waterway is open and ships won’t be attacked.
Iran accuses Washington of violating ceasefire deal
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss “appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships.”
The world for decades has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The U.S. urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman’s territorial waters.
About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.
Iran’s top diplomat also accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in U.S. dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait.
“Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi wrote on X.
Trump says he responded to threats to kill him
A thousand “missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat,” Trump wrote on social media overnight
He said he was responding to threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him. During Khamenei’s funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump has declared the ceasefire over but said the U.S. would continue negotiations.
U.S. officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes in recent days came after what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners tried to sabotage the ceasefire.
Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.
After the U.S. wrapped up its latest strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.
Israel didn’t claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.
The strikes in Iran over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.
