UN pauses Hormuz operation after ship reports attack

The UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) paused its operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz after a vessel reported an attack, reigniting fears over a preliminary deal to end the Iran war.

The cargo ship said it was hit close to Oman by a projectile, British navy agency UKMTO said, hours after Tehran warned vessels against taking routes that it had not approved.

Two US officials told Reuters that Iran had fired on the ship, while Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which Tehran established to manage requests for ships to travel through the waterway, said vessels outside routes it has set will not be guaranteed safe passage.

Four sources identified the ship as the Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely.

A security source said it was likely targeted by a drone.

There was no immediate comment from the US government.

US President Donald Trump warned earlier this month that if Iran did not honour an agreement aimed at ending the war and reopening the strait that the US would probably go back to bombing the country ‌again.

The IMO was helping ⁠to get hundreds of stranded ships and thousands of seafarers out of the strait where they had been stranded for months since the start of the war in late February.

It decided "to temporarily pause its implementation in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region", IMO Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.

The IMO said the ship involved in the suspected attack was not part of its evacuation programme.

The initiative, which was launched on Tuesday, was a voluntary option for ships and their crew to sail out of the Gulf using ‌two routes - one via Iranian waters and the other via Omani waters, with US oversight, the IMO said this week.

Benchmark oil prices rose 1.9% following the reported attack, which analysts said rekindled concerns about how long it could take for Gulf oil flows to resume normal levels.

The ⁠Oman incident is likely to refocus attention on the extent of Iran's future control over the Strait of Hormuz which, before the conflict, handled a fifth of the world's daily oil and liquefied ‌natural gas supplies.

Before the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio - wrapping up a tour of the Gulf to reassure states about the interim ⁠pact - said "we're going to have a problem" if Iran threatens or blocks ships in the strait.

"International waterways do not belong to any nation state. This is a foundational principle in the world today, without which the world would be in total chaos," Mr Rubio told ministers.

"If in fact we accepted that you can charge money to use an international waterway because it happens to be near your territorial space, well then this will spread throughout the world like a contagion," he added.

Iran, however, has signalled it would continue to assert control over the waterway.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said safe passage through the strait would only be possible through routes designated by Iran, adding that it would take action against vessels that failed to comply.

The Revolutionary Guards also ordered two Panama-flagged ships to change course, British maritime security company Ambrey said.

Earlier, US Energy ⁠Secretary Chris Wright said shipments through the Strait of Hormuz were approaching levels seen before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February, with at least 20 million barrels of oil exiting the ⁠waterway in the previous 24 hours.

During the conflict, Iran took effective control of the vital chokepoint, disrupting oil flows and rattling global energy markets and the wider economy.

The war is weighing heavily on Mr Trump ahead of November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Just one in four Americans believes the war was worth the cost, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

Conflicting accounts have emerged over elements of the framework ceasefire deal, which has prompted criticism of Mr Trump at home and abroad.

Disagreements persist over financial incentives for Iran, nuclear inspections, control of the Strait of Hormuz and Israel's parallel war in Lebanon.

Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said that the US assertion that Iran would spend its unfrozen assets to buy US agricultural products was false.

The deal ‌sets up 60 days of talks to tackle thornier issues, including Iran's nuclear programme.

US wants deal but not 'at any price'

Mr Rubio told Gulf allies that any deal ⁠with Iran would take their interests into account as he wrapped up a Middle East trip aimed at winning over regional partners with deep reservations about the preliminary accord.

Speaking at a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers in Bahrain -home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet - Mr Rubio said Washington was seeking an enduring peace with Iran that would not come at the expense of the security of allies in the oil-rich region, many of whom see the deal as too soft aftercoming under Iranian attack during the conflict.

Mr Rubio, on his first regional tour since the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the Middle East war, said the US wants a peace deal but not "at any price".

Mr Rubio told reporters that Gulf allies shared some very serious concerns and that they wanted to be informed of every step of the peace ‌accord, which includes provisions on the strait.

Mr Rubio said he did not discuss a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran that is part of the peace proposal.

Gulf states fear Iran would use that money to revive its military capacity.

Mr Rubio's three-day tour of the Gulf was the first high-level diplomatic mission ⁠since the US-Iran framework agreement last week to end the conflict, which started on 28 February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

At his previous stops in the ‌UAE and Kuwait, Mr Rubio sought to assure officials that the proposed deal was not overly favorable to Iran, which struck several ⁠Gulf states during the war.

"We're ‌not going to do anything that undermines the security of our allies, our longstanding allies in the region," he told reporters in Kuwait.

All six Gulf Cooperation Council nations - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait - ⁠are strategic US allies that offered some degree of logistical support to Washington during the war, and all were buffeted by Iranian airstrikes as a result.

They make up the backbone of America's security architecture in the Middle East, and any countries rethinking their security relationship with the US could have a significant impact on US military strategy in the region.

The draft US-Iran agreement includes no limits on Iran's ballistic missiles, a proposed $300bn reconstruction fund and provisions that could expand Tehran's regional influence and control over critical oil shipping lanes.

Some US Gulf allies are privately concerned that the interim deal could open the door to US normalisation with Iran, a predominantly Shi'ite ‌country that most Sunni-led GCC states consider their main adversary.

Meanwhile Israel said it had set no timetable for withdrawing its forces from Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, as Israeli and Lebanese officials engaged in US-brokered talks in Washington.

The Israeli military has launched widespread airstrikes in Lebanon and sent troops into the country's south after Hezbollah, the powerful militia backed by Iran, entered the Middle East war on the side of its patron in March.

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