Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Thursday it had struck a US airbase after American forces carried out strikes targeting an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, in an escalation that threatened the fragile ceasefire between the two sides and sent oil prices sharply higher.
A US official, speaking anonymously to discuss military operations, told Reuters that American forces had shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth. “These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the official said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it responded by targeting the US airbase from which the Bandar Abbas strike was launched, according to Tasnim news agency. Kuwait, which hosts a large US military base, said it was responding to missile and drone attacks without specifying their origin. Israel also reported sirens related to hostile aircraft activity in northern Israel, where it has been fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Oil prices, having fallen more than 5% on Wednesday, rebounded sharply on news of the escalation. US crude futures gained more than 3%, while stocks fell and the dollar rose.
TRUMP THREATENS OMAN
The flare-up came hours after Trump rejected an Iranian state TV report that an unofficial draft agreement had been reached to restore commercial shipping through the strait to pre-war levels within a month, with Iran and Oman jointly managing traffic.
At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said no single country would control the waterway and issued a stark warning to Oman — a country with which the US has decades-long military and economic ties. “Nobody’s going to control the strait. It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine,” Trump said.
Trump added that he was not yet satisfied on a deal with Iran and that the US was not discussing easing sanctions. The White House dismissed the Iranian TV report as a “complete fabrication.” Tehran did not comment. The White House and Oman’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Iranian TV report had also said the US would lift its blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw military forces from Iran’s vicinity. It made no mention of Iran’s nuclear programme, which Washington wants dismantled.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said Trump’s remarks would not force Iran to abandon its demands to enrich uranium, exercise authority over the strait and have sanctions lifted. “It is obvious Trump, seeking a way out of this strategic deadlock, alternates between issuing threats and appealing for an agreement,” Azizi wrote on X.
The US Treasury Department added the Persian Gulf Strait Authority — the Iranian body established to manage passage through the waterway — to its list of sanctioned entities posing threats to US national security.
STICKING POINTS REMAIN
The Strait of Hormuz handled a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas traffic before the war began on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, killing thousands. The waterway, Iran’s nuclear programme and ongoing sanctions remain the central sticking points in negotiations to end the now three-month conflict.
Iranian sources have said nuclear talks would come in a second round of negotiations — a sequencing that may not be acceptable to some of Trump’s closest allies. Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. “The bottom line is Iran’s never going to have a nuclear weapon,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
(Reuters)