US Strikes Iran in Response to Attack on Cargo Ship in Strait of Hormuz

 Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. (Reuters)
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US Strikes Iran in Response to Attack on Cargo Ship in Strait of Hormuz

 Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. (Reuters)

The US military attacked Iran on Friday 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 ceasefire agreed on last week. 

US Central Command said aircraft struck missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites, later publishing a grainy black-and-white video of an explosion labeled "unclassified." A US official reported the operation had concluded. 

Iran 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. Tehran did not provide details about what may have been hit. 

Elsewhere, however, there were signs of progress in ending the four-month-old conflict, 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. 

'VIOLENCE WILL ‌BE MET WITH ‌VIOLENCE,' VANCE SAYS 

Tehran has said it would control the Strait of Hormuz and warned Gulf states not to ‌side ⁠with Washington after ⁠Thursday's attack on a cargo ship traveling near Oman's coast. President Donald Trump blamed the attack on Iran and said it violated last week's interim 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. 

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

"Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored 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 toward vessels that violated Strait of Hormuz regulations about five hours earlier, adding ‌two warning missiles had also been launched from the nearby Karpan area toward the strategic waterway. 

On Saturday, Iran's Mehr news agency cited the head ‌of ports at eastern Hormozgan as saying that there was no damage to the port of Sirik after the attack by the US. The official said the port was operating normally with no damage reported to facilities and equipment. 

Iran's Revolutionary Guards 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 Revolutionary Guards said. 

OIL PRICES FALL BEFORE LATEST STRIKES 

The US did not immediately respond to Iran's report of striking American targets. 

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, said in response to the latest strikes that Trump has failed to show a 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 posted on X. 

Before the renewed outbreak of violence, oil prices fell about 3% on Friday, on course for steep weekly losses, in response to oil tankers exiting the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of global oil and LNG supplies before the US and Israel launched the war on February 28. 

Fertilizer shipments through the strait have 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 — 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." 



Oman FM to Visit Iran to Discuss Hormuz Strait

Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. (Reuters file)
Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. (Reuters file)
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Oman FM to Visit Iran to Discuss Hormuz Strait

Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. (Reuters file)
Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. (Reuters file)

Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi will visit Tehran on Tuesday to ‌continue talks between ‌Iran and ‌Oman ⁠on the Strait ⁠of Hormuz, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil ⁠Baghaei said ‌on ‌Monday.

Al-Busaidi will hold the "ongoing political consultations between the two sides, as two littoral states of the Strait of Hormuz, to help strengthen peace and security in the region," Baqaei added in a statement.

"The visit is aimed at strengthening Iran-Oman bilateral cooperation and al-Busaidi will meet with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to discuss bilateral and regional issues," he went on to say.

Iran has exerted control over Hormuz, a key waterway for oil and gas shipping, since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East on February 28. It requires vessels to obtain permission and pay transit fees before using the waterway.

The United States wants the strait to return to its pre-war system of free navigation, while US President Donald Trump claims Washington "has total control" over Hormuz, through which around one fifth of the world's oil and LNG exports passed before the war.

Iran and Oman have been in talks to establish a new route through the strait, the only entrance to the Gulf and which separates their two countries, but a deal has not yet been finalized.

Tehran, however, says even if the talks bear fruit, that would not on its own open the waterway unless the US meets Iran's broader demands including the lifting of its blockade on Iranian ports.


Greece Moves Patriot System over Reported Iran Threats to US Bases

A view of the port of the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo, officially Megisti, the most southeastern inhabited Greek island in the Dodecanese. (AFP)
A view of the port of the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo, officially Megisti, the most southeastern inhabited Greek island in the Dodecanese. (AFP)
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Greece Moves Patriot System over Reported Iran Threats to US Bases

A view of the port of the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo, officially Megisti, the most southeastern inhabited Greek island in the Dodecanese. (AFP)
A view of the port of the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo, officially Megisti, the most southeastern inhabited Greek island in the Dodecanese. (AFP)

The Greek military on Monday moved one of its Patriot missile interceptor systems to the island of Crete in response to Iranian threats to hit US military bases in Europe, media reports said.

The battery was moved from the eastern island of Karpathos to Crete, where there is a major US base at Souda, the reports said. Media images showed the Patriot system on a truck waiting to be loaded on a barge, said AFP.

The Financial Times reported last week, quoting Iranian sources, that Iran would fire missiles at US targets in Europe if President Donald Trump steps up military pressure over the Strait of Hormuz.

The Greek defense ministry did not comment on the reported transfer of the missile system.


Japanese Lawmakers Travel to Beijing, Seeking to Mend Ties After Takaichi’s Taiwan Remark Fallout

Chinese and Japanese flags flutter in front of the Tiananmen Gate ahead of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit, in Beijing, China October 25, 2018. (Reuters)
Chinese and Japanese flags flutter in front of the Tiananmen Gate ahead of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit, in Beijing, China October 25, 2018. (Reuters)
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Japanese Lawmakers Travel to Beijing, Seeking to Mend Ties After Takaichi’s Taiwan Remark Fallout

Chinese and Japanese flags flutter in front of the Tiananmen Gate ahead of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit, in Beijing, China October 25, 2018. (Reuters)
Chinese and Japanese flags flutter in front of the Tiananmen Gate ahead of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit, in Beijing, China October 25, 2018. (Reuters)

A cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers, including one from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's governing party, headed to Beijing on Monday to meet with Chinese officials for the first time since ties between the two Asian rivals deteriorated after Takaichi's comment on Taiwan angered China.

Japan seeks a chance to mend its strained ties with China as tensions have spilled over into the economy.

The group, which includes Gaku Hashimoto, a lawmaker of Takaichi's governing Liberal Democratic Party and a former health and welfare vice minister, and a lawmaker each from two opposition parties Komeito and the Centrist Reform Alliance, is to meet with Chinese Communist Party officials during their visit through Thursday.

"Communication has been severed in all areas and we are beginning to see their impact in many areas,” Shinichi Isa, a top spokesperson for the CRA party, told reporters before leaving Tokyo's Haneda airport. “I hope we can somehow find a clue to restart a dialogue.”

Isa, who has served as a diplomat at the Japanese Embassy in China, wrote on X earlier this month that bilateral ties have sunk to their worst since the 1972 normalization of relations.

He wrote that officials had always remained in communication even during previous lows: “Now all channels between officials and ministries have been cut off.”

The situation is not in the national interest of either side, Isa said at the time, and the Chinese side accepted a request from Japanese lawmakers for a “window for dialogue.”

Soon after taking office, Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a survival-threatening situation” for Japan that would justify the use of force, enraging Beijing.

The remark crossed what China considers a red line in its relations with other countries about Taiwan, which is a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory.

Takaichi has not retracted her comment, but when marking Japan's World War II surrender on Aug. 15, she prayed remotely instead of visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, seen by China and South Korea as lacking remorse for Japan's wartime militarism and atrocities.