US strikes Iran in response to attack on cargo ship Ever Lovely in Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI/LONDON - The US military attacked Iran on June 26 in response to an Iranian drone strike on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, with each country accusing the other of violating terms of a fragile peace deal agreed on last week.

US Central Command said aircraft struck missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites, and a US official reported the operation had concluded.

Iranian media said a projectile struck the area around a pier in Sirik in southern Iran, and that Iranian naval forces responded by striking US military targets in the region.

Elsewhere there were signs of progress, however, as Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement to end the fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Both sides framed the deal as an initial step that calls for Hezbollah to disarm and Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, but it was not clear how it would be enforced. Hezbollah said it would not cooperate.

Iran warns Gulf states

Tehran has said it would control the Strait of Hormuz and warned Gulf states not to side with Washington after the June 25 attack on a cargo ship travelling near Oman’s coast.

US President Donald Trump blamed the attack on Iran and said it violated last week’s agreement.

“The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire,” US Central Command said in its statement announcing strikes, which it called “a powerful response to yesterday’s attack on a commercial ship that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”

The US military said it would continue to provide “safe passage coordination and support” to commercial vessels transiting the strait.

Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine said earlier on June 26 its Singapore-flagged ship Ever Lovely had been hit close to Oman on June 25 by an “unknown object” while on a route recommended by the British navy agency UKMTO.

Nobody was hurt and the ship resumed its journey out of the strait.

‘Violence will be met with violence’

US Vice-President J.D. Vance, once seen as a sceptic on US intervention in Iran but now a Trump administration point person on the conflict, said the Americans have honoured the ceasefire deal, also known as a memorandum of understanding.

“Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honoured it. If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence,” Vance said on X.

Iranian state media, citing an unnamed military source, reported the strike at the port of Sirik after an explosion was heard there.

The source said several warning shots had been fired from Sirik towards vessels that violated Strait of Hormuz regulations about five hours earlier, adding that two warning missiles had also been launched from the nearby Karpan area towards the strategic waterway.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that in response its navy “struck the locations where the terrorist US military is stationed in the region” and warned that any further US attacks would be met with a broader response, according to the statement carried on state media.

The ceasefire agreement gives Iran control over ship traffic in the strait, the Guards said.

“However, the United States, by provoking various fronts, sought to violate this commitment, and the necessary response was given and will continue to be given. If the aggression is repeated, our response will be broader than this,” the Guards added.

The US did not immediately respond to Iran’s report of striking American targets, a tactic that has sought to undermine US allies in the region during the conflict.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s national security committee, said in response to the latest strikes that Trump has failed to show commitment to the principles of negotiation or ceasefire.

“This reckless violation of the ceasefire will, as always, lead to retreat and regret on their part,” Azizi said in a post on X.

Iran had previously expressed anger at what it said was an “interventionist, irresponsible and provocative” statement by the US and six Gulf states that rejected its assertion that it could charge tolls on vessels transiting the strait.

“Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz cannot be guaranteed under ambiguous arrangements, parallel routes or decision-making that does not take Iran‘s role as a coastal state into account,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X.

Bloomberg News said Oman, which lies on the opposite side of the strait from Iran, had told allies ships going through Hormuz may have to pay. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

Iranian state TV had earlier said three foreign tankers attempting what it called an “unauthorised passage” of the strait were turned back after a warning from the Guards.

Oil prices fall

Before the renewed outbreak of violence, oil prices dropped by about 3 per cent on June 26, on course for steep weekly losses, in response to oil tankers exiting the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies typically passes.

Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings at its Ras Tanura terminal in the Gulf, the world’s biggest oil port, after a nearly four-month halt, shipping data showed.

Fertiliser shipments through the strait have also picked up, helping to assuage concerns about a spike in global food prices.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – wrapping up a tour of the Gulf to reassure regional allies about the interim pact – issued a joint statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council calling for “free, unconditional, and unrestricted navigation” in the strait without tolls or “attempts to assert control”.

Iran‘s foreign ministry said the strait should be governed by Iran and Oman, while Ali Akbar Velayati, top adviser to Iran‘s supreme leader, warned Washington’s Gulf allies their survival depended on Tehran’s tolerance. REUTERS