The US Central Command (Centcom) has also dismissed the claim inIranian media that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had hit a US warship with two missiles trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz.
Instead, Centcom claimed in a post on X that the “truth” was that “no US Navy ships have been struck” and that US forces are continuing to enforce the naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Centcom has said it would support an effort, announced by Donald Trump over the weekend, to “guide” stranded ships out of the strait of Hormuz with the backing of 15,000 personnel and over 100 aircraft.
Iran has rejected this plan, warning that “any foreign military force, especially the invading American army” will be attacked if they attempt to approach or enter the strait.
South Korea said it is verifying intelligence that a South Korean-flagged vessel was attacked in the strait of Hormuz, according to a report in Yonhap News which we have yet been able to independently verify ourselves. We will bring you more details as soon as we have them.
The UAE diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash has condemned the targeting of a tanker affiliated with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) as it transited the strait of Hormuz (see this post for more details).
“The Iranian aggression continues unabated, with acts of maritime piracy targeting a national tanker affiliated with Asnoc as it transited the strait of Hormuz,” he wrote in a post on X.
“The UAE’s stance remains steadfast in rejecting aggression and upholding freedom of navigation in this vital international passage. These attacks underscore that the Iranian threat to the security and stability of the region persists and cannot be ignored.”
Iran has executed three men charged in connection with political protests this January, authorities said, the latest in a wave of hangings against the backdrop of the war against the US and Israel.
Iranian authorities have carried out executions on a near-daily basis in recent weeks, in what activists have denounced as a bid to instil fear in society at a time of international and domestic tension.
Mehdi Rassouli, Mohammad Reza Miri and Ebrahim Dolatabadi, all considered political prisoners by human rights organisations, were executed after being convicted over unrest in the eastern city of Mashhad in January, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency announced on Monday.
It was not specified when or where they were executed. But the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) said Rassouli, 25, and Miri, 21, were hanged at dawn on Sunday at the Vakilabad prison in Mashhad.
The protests began in December, partly as a result of grievances over the Iranian economy but intensified into nationwide rallies against the Islamic regime, peaking as mass demonstrations on the nights of 8 and 9 January.
Rights groups say thousands were killed in a crackdown by security forces; while authorities have blamed “rioters” whom they claim were backed by the US and Israel.
Mizan said Rassouli and Miri had been responsible for the death of a member of the security forces and described Dolatabadi as one of the “instigators” of the unrest in Mashhad.
Two US-flagged merchant vessels have crossed through the strait of Hormuz as US Navy guided-missile destroyers operate in the gulf, US Central Command said on Monday.
“American forces are actively assisting efforts to restore transit for commercial shipping,” it said in a statement.
Hezbollah’s leader condemned Israel’s operations in Lebanon amid a fragile ceasefire, repeating the group’s rejection of direct negotiations between the Israeli and Lebanese governments.
Israel has kept up deadly strikes on Lebanon despite the 17 April ceasefire that sought to halt more than six weeks of war between its military and Hezbollah, with both sides accusing the other of violating the truce, AFP reported.
In Lebanon’s south near the Israeli border, the Israeli army has also demolished buildings and prevented residents of dozens of towns from returning.
“There is no ceasefire in Lebanon, but a continuous Israeli-American aggression,” Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a written statement broadcast by the al-Manar TV channel, which is affiliated with the Iran-backed militant group.
“Lebanon is the victim of aggression, and it is Lebanon that needs guarantees for its security and sovereignty” from Israel, he added.
The UAE has strongly condemned an Iranian drone attack on an Adnoc oil tanker in the blockaded strait of Hormuz, as the US was due to start guiding ships through the waterway.
Two drones hit the MV Barakah off the coast of Oman but no one was injured, according to Adnoc, the UAE state oil giant, adding that the ship was not loaded.
“Targeting commercial shipping and using the strait of Hormuz as a tool of economic coercion or blackmail represents acts of piracy by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the UAE’s foreign ministry said.
More than 850 ships are estimated to have been trapped in the Gulf since the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran on 28 February. Iran imposed a blockade on foreign shipping using the strait of Hormuz soon afterwards and Trump imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April.
A Pakistani-brokered ceasefire, announced by Trump in early April, stopped hostilities but failed to open the strait.
An estimated 20,000 sailors are stuck on the tankers, bulk carriers, container ships and other vessels, and there are growing concerns for their welfare. Trump said the US had been approached by countries for help.
Iran’s military-backed Fars news agency had quoted a senior official as saying a return to all-out conflict was “likely”, weeks after the ceasefire was brokered. Pakistani efforts to rekindle peace talks in Islamabad, after a first round ended without agreement, have so far failed as each side set preconditions that the other refused to fulfil.
Here is a recap of the latest developments in the US-Israeli war on Iran:
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US Central Command (Centcom) denied that one of its warships trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz had been struck by Iranian missiles.
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Centcom said no US Navy ships have been struck, adding that US forces are continuing to enforce the naval blockade on Iranian ports.
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The denial came after unverified claims in Iranian media that Iran had stopped a US warship from passing through the strait of Hormuz after two missiles were reported to have hit the vessel near Jask island after it ignored Iranian warnings.
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The Fars news agency said the ship was hit as it was sailing through the strait “in violation of traffic and shipping security”.
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The US has launched an operation to “guide” ships trapped in the Gulf by the war through a southern route of the strait of Hormuz, even as Tehran insists that any such transits will have to be coordinated with its armed forces.
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Iran earlier threatened any foreign military force attempting to enter the strait.
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Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said officials were reviewing a US counter-proposal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran. He suggested that the US has to reduce its “excessive” demands if progress is going to be made in peace talks which have reached an impasse.
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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday that the only way to reopen the strait was “a coordinated reopening by the United States and Iran”.
The US Central Command (Centcom) has also dismissed the claim inIranian media that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had hit a US warship with two missiles trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz.
Instead, Centcom claimed in a post on X that the “truth” was that “no US Navy ships have been struck” and that US forces are continuing to enforce the naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Centcom has said it would support an effort, announced by Donald Trump over the weekend, to “guide” stranded ships out of the strait of Hormuz with the backing of 15,000 personnel and over 100 aircraft.
Iran has rejected this plan, warning that “any foreign military force, especially the invading American army” will be attacked if they attempt to approach or enter the strait.
Axios’ global affairs correspondent, Barak Ravid, has posted on X to say that a senior US official denies the American ship was hit by Iranian missiles.
Iran’s Fars news agency is reporting that a US warship intending to pass through the strait of Hormuz was turned back after ignoring a warning from Iran’s navy, citing “news sources in the south”.
The report, which we have not yet been able to independently verify, said that two missiles hit a US navy frigate sailing through the waterway in what Iran deemed a violation of “traffic and shipping security” near Jask island.
Iran’s military has warned the US navy to stay out of the strait after Donald Trump said the US will “help free up” ships stuck in the strategic waterway from today.
The US president called the operation a “humanitarian gesture”, with many of the vessels running low on food. But Tehran said it would be seen as a breach of the ceasefire.
Iran imposed a blockade on foreign shipping using the strait soon after the war began with a US-Israeli attack on 28 February which killed the country’s former supreme leader. Trump, who is under growing domestic pressure to get the waterway reopened, imposed a counter-blockade of ships using Iranian ports on 13 April.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has published some interesting analysis on whether Iran’s escalating economic crisis (soaring prices, high unemployment, high inflation, currency devaluation, supply chain disruption) could weaken its negotiating position with the US.
Iran’s economy was already crippled by years of US and international sanctions but the US-Israeli war has only made things worse. Here is an extract from Patrick’s analysis:
Trump made his prediction that Iran would choke on the basis that the country would soon run out of oil storage space because of the US naval blockade. On 26 April, he predicted that Iranian wells would “explode” in a “very powerful” destructive process starting in three days.
Behind this prediction was a belief that the US naval blockade launched on 13 April would prevent Tehran’s tankers from reaching the strait of Hormuz, depriving the Iranian regime of at least $175m (£129m) a day in oil export revenue.
Once the oil was stuck inside the country, Iran would soon run out of storage, forcing it to close the taps. Such a closure would irreparably damage the wells.
Although it is true Iran is now producing more oil than it can export, it appears for the moment enough tankers are making it through the US naval blockade, while remedial steps such as flaring means storage space has not run out. Independent estimates, including from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, suggest that Iran has up to three weeks of free useable storage capacity.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, has been speaking to journalists in a media briefing. According to Al Jazeera, he confirmed officials were reviewing a US counterproposal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“The US message was received through Pakistan, and I will not discuss the details of the issues raised at this time because these issues are still under review,” Baghaei said. It is not clear what terms the US demanded Iran accept in its counterproposal.
“The issues raised about enrichment or nuclear materials are purely speculative and, at this stage, we are not talking about anything other than stopping the war completely, and the direction we will take in the future will be determined in the future.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaeihas suggested that the US must reduce its “excessive” demands in negotiations if the US-Israeli war on Iran is to be brought to an end.
“At this stage, our priority is to end the war,” he said in a briefing broadcast by state television. “The other side must commit to a reasonable approach and abandon its excessive demands regarding Iran.”
Iran has reportedly received a US response to its latest peace proposal, which is said to have focused on an initial agreement to open the strait of Hormuz, for the US to withdraw its forces from near Iran’s borders, pay compensation for its attack on Iran and for Israel to end its war on Lebanon.
The US president, Donald Trump, claimed on Sunday that his representatives were having “very positive” discussions with Iran but also reportedly told Israel’s Kan News on the same day that the Iranian proposal was unacceptable to him.
The US has repeatedly said it will not end its war without an agreement that prevents Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon. The regime in Tehran insists the programme is for civilian purposes and it has no intention of making a nuclear weapon.
It is possible that an agreement for the strait of Hormuz to reopen is reached before Iran’s nuclear programme is discussed at a later stage of negotiations but, as my colleague Julian Borger notes in this story, there is growing speculation over the possibility of another round of US airstrikes against Iran aimed at forcing concessions faster.
The internet blackout in Iran has entered its 66th day, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks. It said in a social media post:
It’s now the 66th consecutive day of Iran’s internet blackout with the censorship measure surpassing 1560 hours.
Despite the distribution of some international access via pro-regime channels, metrics confirm that there is still no restoration of service to the general public.
Certain journalists, businesses and politicians are allowed access to the internet. But the vast majority of Iranians have been completely cut off. There was an earlier internet shutdown in January during nationwide protests, which helped obscure extreme violence against Iran’s population.
