Live updates: Follow the latest news on Iran war
Iran’s attacks on shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are pushing its confrontation with the US towards a wider war, with Tehran seeking to draw the region into the conflict by striking neighbouring countries despite the Gulf's continuing diplomatic efforts.
The latest escalation came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed to block the Strait of Hormuz, with its forces attacking several commercial vessels that were attempting to cross the vital waterway.
The US then launched strikes on Iranian targets in its third such operation this week. Iranian media reported explosions near major southern energy hubs, including Asaluyeh and Bushehr, as well as the central city of Kerman.
The US Central Command said its latest strikes hit about 140 Iranian targets, taking the total to more than 300 this week, while insisting commercial shipping was still moving through the strait despite Iranian threats.
Iran said it retaliated by attacking US assets in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, while the UAE said it intercepted Iranian missiles and drones before issuing an all-clear. Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said the era of “one-sided deals” was over after the renewed strikes.
Iranian state media said a navy officer was killed in the US strikes on the south-eastern port city of Jask.
A provincial official said a communications tower in the southern highlands of Kerman province was hit.
The latest Iranian attacks against neighbouring countries came despite recent talks held in Muscat between Iranian and Omani officials and a reported visit by Qatari mediators to Tehran to discuss continuing the diplomatic push to end the conflict.
Qatar's Ministry of Interior has said that three people, including a child, were wounded by falling shrapnel during interception operations, adding that the injured were receiving medical care. Kuwait called the attacks a “dangerous escalation”.
Oman summoned Iran's ambassador to Muscat to protest against attacks that hit Musandam and Al Wusta governorates, the Omani Foreign Ministry said. Ministry officials called the attacks “irresponsible acts”, urging respect for state sovereignty and the principles of good neighbourliness.
Separately, Oman said it rescued 23 crew members from a Cyprus-flagged commercial vessel that the US military said was attacked off the sultanate’s coast. One crew member was still missing.
The Maritime Security Centre said in a post on X that the vessel, the GFS Galaxy, had issued a distress call after the incident about 8km off the coast of Musandam governorate.
US President Donald Trump told NBC on Sunday that the ship attack came shortly after Iranian officials had agreed to what he described as a “perfect deal” that would have barred Iran from pursuing a nuclear programme.
“They agreed to a deal yesterday. Perfect deal for us. No nuclear, no this, no that, no nothing. They gave up everything,” he said. “Then after that, they left the room, and within an hour, they launched a drone and a ship.”
Days before the two-month window set to negotiate a settlement to end the war reaches its halfway point, the US-Iran confrontation has entered a more dangerous phase, with Iran insisting on a mechanism that gives it control over transit in the strait, a move rejected by the US and the Gulf states.
The immediate test is whether diplomacy can reopen the Strait of Hormuz and contain a crisis threatening regional security and global energy markets.
The Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC) said that vessels can continue sailing in the Strait of Hormuz through a southern shipping route despite Iran's declaration that the vital waterway was closed. In an advisory to shipowners, operators and mariners, the JMIC said the threat level in the strait remains “severe” but noted that the southern route remains available and has been expanded to accommodate two-way traffic.
The US military said on Sunday that Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz and that it is open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit the international waterway.
“US forces are positioned and prepared to ensure that freedom of navigation remains available despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, harassment, threats, and arbitrary declarations,” the US Central Command said. “Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing.”
Poor choice
Earlier on Sunday, Centcom said that US President Donald Trump ordered the latest strikes aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels. “Iran made a poor choice,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X. “Now they pay.”
Centcom said the main vessel attacked by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was the GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship, and said it had suffered significant engine-room damage and that a civilian crew member was missing.
Iran said several ships tried to cross the Strait of Hormuz using an “unauthorised route” and disregarded warnings to correct their course. The strait – which was a conduit before the war for one-fifth of the world's oil and LNG supplies – will remain closed until “the end of US interference in this region,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said.
Earlier on Saturday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei pledged to avenge the killing of his father and predecessor in his first message since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's one-week funeral. “We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” Mr Khamenei said in a written statement.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously wounded in the opening salvos of the war with Iran, in the attack that killed his father on February 28, as the US and Israel launched the offensive on Iran. He has not been seen in public since then, nor have pictures or videos showing his condition been published.
Mr Trump this week declared the end of a ceasefire that had been in place since April 8. Despite hints of continuing diplomatic efforts, the trajectory appears to be a return to conflict as both the US and Iran remain far apart on negotiating positions and red lines.
