Fresh attacks on commercial shipping by the United States and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have deepened fears that the war with Iran could drag on, as Tehran warned the Strait of Hormuz would stay closed unless Washington agreed to its demands.
The incidents occurred at two of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints: the Gulf of Oman, which leads into the strait, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea. Both routes are critical to the movement of global oil supplies.
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The developments came despite repeated claims by US President Donald Trump that an agreement could be close. Oil prices ended largely unchanged, while global stock markets fell as hopes for a rapid resolution faded.
Brent crude futures settled at $88.88 per barrel by late afternoon, while US crude slipped 0.2% to $83.05.
Yemen’s Coast Guard said two rescuers from an anti-Houthi military group had also been killed.
If confirmed, the deaths aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah would mark the first fatalities involving commercial shipping claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis since the war with Iran began.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the group had attacked a Saudi vessel transporting military equipment in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Last month, the Houthis said they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.
Saba did not identify the vessel, and Saudi officials had not immediately responded to the report.
Mohsen Rezaei said the waterway will remain closed unless the US accepts Iran’s conditions
At the same time, the US military said an MH-60 helicopter operated by the US Navy had fired two Hellfire missiles to disable the steering system of a Panama-flagged cargo ship.
The vessel had ignored repeated orders to stop breaching a naval blockade imposed on Iranian ports, according to US Central Command.
Maritime sources told Reuters that the ship was struck off Pakistan as it entered the Gulf of Oman.
The incidents followed a sharp escalation in rhetoric from both Tehran and Washington over the past two days.
Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s senior security official, said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed unless the United States accepted Iran’s conditions for ending the war. Those demands include the release of Iran’s frozen assets and an end to conflicts across the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza.
His comments came after Mr Trump issued a fresh demand on Monday that Iran compensate people killed during 50 years of wars, attacks and protests.
Since the conflict began, Mr Trump has moved repeatedly between warnings of a wider military campaign and assertions that a peace agreement could soon be reached.
US President Donald Trump described Iran as ‘very devious negotiators’
In an interview released late on Monday, he indicated that the uncertainty could continue, saying he might simply “bop along” while allowing Iran’s economy to deteriorate or strike the country “really, really hard”.
“I’m sort of negotiating,” Mr Trump told Real America’s Voice.
“They’re very devious negotiators,” he added.
After returning from a visit to Ohio yesterday, Mr Trump told reporters: “Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine.”
“We totally control the Strait of Hormuz … Nobody else, only us,” he said.
The president added: “At some point, maybe they’ll do something and then they get blown away.
“But right now, we’re in a very good position.
“We have a country that has been the bully of the Middle East for 50 years, really 51 if you think about it … and they’re no longer the bully of the Middle East.”
Asked about an incident last month in which he changed aircraft in Turkey amid concerns over reports of a possible Iranian assassination threat, Mr Trump suggested the replacement plane might have been at greater risk.
“That would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for,” he said, after The Washington Post reported that he had secretly taken a military aircraft rather than Air Force One in an operation that involved moving him between planes in a catering truck.
The Stait of Hormiz handled a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flow before the war
Mr Rezaei’s remarks were the clearest sign yet that the Strait of Hormuz was unlikely to reopen to commercial shipping soon. He was appointed on Sunday as deputy head of the body responsible for coordinating Iran’s security and foreign policy.
Before the war, the waterway carried a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
“As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened,” Mr Rezaei said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Washington had not immediately commented on Iran’s latest warning.
Thousands of people have been killed since the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on 28 February.
Iran has responded with strikes against US assets and infrastructure in Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Mohammad Reza Naqdi, an adviser to the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, raised the prospect of further escalation by saying on Iranian state television that the corps was developing the ability to conduct operations “on enemy soil”.
“We need to be able to move the operations to the enemy’s soil, whenever this is needed and ordered,” he said.
“This is the characteristic of the offensive doctrine that has to be attained,” he added.
