Iran questions seriousness of US diplomacy following attack

Fresh tension in the Gulf has cast new doubt over US-Iran diplomacy, with Tehran openly questioning Washington’s credibility even as the White House awaits an answer to its latest proposal.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday he expected Iran to respond to Washington’s most recent offer for an agreement aimed at prolonging a fragile truce and opening the door to peace talks — “supposedly tonight”.

Yet if Pakistani mediators did receive an Iranian reply, no public indication of it emerged.

In a call with his Turkish counterpart, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi challenged the dependability of the US leadership.

Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeed Irvani also accused the United States of breaching the ceasefire through the attacks on the Iranian tankers, in a letter sent to the UN secretary-general and the Security Council.

A screengrab from a video released by US Central Command purporting to show an attack on an Iranian-flagged tanker

A US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers yesterday after Washington said the vessels were defying its naval blockade of Iran’s ports.

US Central Command said an F/A-18 Super Hornet carried out the strike with precision munitions in the Gulf of Oman, the strategic approach to the Strait of Hormuz, to stop the ships from continuing toward Iran.

An Iranian military official told local media that the country’s navy had answered “American terrorism with strikes” and added that “the clashes have now ceased”.

The confrontation followed another bout of violence from overnight Thursday into Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial global shipping corridor that Iran has sought to dominate in an effort to impose tolls on foreign vessels and gain economic leverage over the US and its allies.

The violence was not confined to the sea.

The UAE said its air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles and three drones launched from Iran yesterday, with three people reported to have suffered moderate injuries.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has again said it was “unacceptable” for Tehran to control the vital oil route.

The US has sent Iran, through Pakistani mediators, a proposal to prolong the Gulf truce and create space for talks on a final settlement to the conflict that began 10 weeks ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said the proposal was still “under review”, according to ISNA.

Watch: Iran questions seriousness of US diplomacy after attack

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Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met US Vice President JD Vance in Washington yesterday, where the two discussed Pakistani-led efforts to secure a permanent peace.

During the war, Iran has struck sites in Qatar, citing the Gulf state’s role as host to a major US air base.

A US intelligence assessment indicated that a blockade of Iranian ports would not place Iran under severe economic strain for roughly another four months, according to a US official familiar with the matter, underscoring how limited Washington’s leverage may remain as both sides try to wind down a conflict that has proved unpopular with US voters.

The Washington Post first reported the assessment.

A senior intelligence official rejected the “claims” about the CIA analysis as “false”, saying the blockade “is inflicting real, compounding damage – severing trade, crushing revenue, and accelerating systemic economic collapse”.

The developments come as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Europe still wanted to help preserve the NATO alliance, despite the strains with the United States laid bare by the Iran war.

Relations were already tense after US criticism of Europe over defence spending and issues such as immigration policy, and those frictions have deepened since Germany and other European countries declined to back the US and Israeli war against Iran that began at the end of February.

“We are really willing to keep this alliance alive for the future,” Mr Merz said at a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

He also said Sweden and Finland had reinforced the European pillar of the alliance.

“We know that there are some differences. We know that we are seeing challenges, all of us, but our final goal is to bring this conflict to an end and to guarantee that Iran is not able to produce nuclear weapons,” Mr Merz said.

“And this goal is a common goal between America and Europe.”

Oil slick spreading near Iran’s Kharg Island

Iran’s Kharg Island has become a central front in the war between the US and Iran so far

Meanwhile, satellite imagery showed an oil slick spreading off the coast of Iran’s Kharg Island, one of the Islamic republic’s main oil export terminals.

The cause of the apparent spill was not immediately known. It lay off the island’s west coast and seemed to stretch across more than 52sq/km, according to global monitor Orbital EOS.

The Conflict and Environment Observatory, a UK-based non-governmental organisation, told AFP that the slick was “much reduced” today and said it may have originated from leaking oil infrastructure.

Kharg Island sits at the core of Iran’s oil export system, a pillar of its economy, and is located in the Gulf well to the north of the narrow Strait of Hormuz.

After the war began on 28 February, Iran largely shut the Strait of Hormuz, jolting global markets and sending oil prices higher.

The US later responded by imposing its own blockade on Iranian ports.

On Sunday, Mr Trump announced a US naval operation intended to reopen the waterway to commercial traffic, but dropped the plan on Tuesday in favour of returning to negotiations.

Saudi sources told AFP that the kingdom had denied permission for the US military to use its bases and airspace for that operation, with one source saying Riyadh “felt it would just escalate the situation and would not work”.

A parallel ceasefire in Lebanon is also showing signs of strain.

Lebanon’s health ministry has condemned a “barbaric” Israeli attack that targeted a man and a 12-year-old girl in the south of the country, despite the ceasefire agreement in force since 17 April.