UAE Reports Attacks as US-Iran Ceasefire Nears Collapse
The fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States was on the brink on Monday as both sides exchanged fire around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said it had come under attack for...
The fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States was on the brink on Monday as both sides exchanged fire around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said it had come under attack for the first time since the truce was declared nearly a month ago.
One day after US President Donald Trump announced an operation to escort stranded vessels through the vital waterway, Fox News reported that he warned Iran would be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacked US ships.
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Iran, however, gave no sign of backing down, pledging to continue asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint that carried one-fifth of the world’s oil before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February.
A US admiral said American forces had sunk six small Iranian vessels. Tehran rejected that account, after earlier firing warning shots at US warships.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz
“These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression, posing a direct threat to the state’s security, stability, and the safety of its territories,” the UAE’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
UAE authorities said a strike on an energy facility in the emirate of Fujairah wounded three Indian nationals.
In Oman, state media reported that two people were injured after a residential building in Bukha, on the Strait of Hormuz coastline, was hit.
Return to war footing
Oil prices extended their rise after the attack in the UAE, with Brent crude, the international benchmark for July delivery, surging by more than 5%.
Higher energy costs since the war began have rippled through the global economy, squeezing consumers and creating a political problem for Mr Trump just months before congressional elections.
In Israel, a military official said the armed forces had been placed on high alert.
The UAE, meanwhile, ordered all schools to switch back to remote learning for the rest of the week.
The UAE defence ministry said four cruise missiles were launched from Iran, with three intercepted and the fourth falling into the water.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that clashes in the strait showed there was ‘no military solution to a political crisis’
UAE authorities also said Iran launched drones at a tanker linked to ADNOC, its state-owned oil company.
A senior Iranian military official stopped short of denying the strikes, but said the Islamic republic had “no pre-planned programme to attack the oil facilities in question”.
“What happened was the product of the US military’s adventurism to create a passage for ships to illegally pass through” the Strait of Hormuz, the official said, according to state television.
“The US military must be held accountable for it,” the official added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said the confrontation in the strait underlined that there was “no military solution to a political crisis” and pointed to Pakistan’s continuing mediation efforts.
“The US should be wary of being dragged back into a quagmire by ill-wishers. So should the UAE. Project Freedom is Project Deadlock,” he wrote on X.
US flexes muscle in strait
Mr Trump has repeatedly called on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a route that was open before the war and one Tehran sees as a key source of leverage.
On Sunday, Mr Trump unveiled what he called “Project Freedom”, describing it as a humanitarian mission to help stranded crews by guiding ships from neutral countries out of the Gulf.
A person in front of a large screen displaying vessel movements in the Strait of Hormuz on a ship-tracking website
Key details of how the plan would work, and what form US assistance would take, remained uncertain.
US Central Command said guided-missile destroyers had moved through Hormuz and that, in the first phase of “Project Freedom”, two US-flagged merchant ships had left the Gulf.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards disputed that version of events, saying: “No commercial vessels or oil tankers have passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past few hours.”
South Korea said an “explosion and fire” had hit a South Korean vessel in the strait.
Trump plays down impact
Mr Trump appeared to shrug off the Iranian strikes, saying on social media that Iran had “taken some shots” but caused little damage.
As of 29 April, maritime intelligence firm AXSMarine said more than 900 commercial vessels were in the Gulf.
Diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran have remained stalled since the ceasefire, with the United States twice cancelling plans to send senior officials to new talks in Pakistan and President Trump voicing scepticism about an Iranian proposal.
A separate ceasefire in Lebanon has also come under pressure, after Israel carried out heavy bombing and a ground invasion in response to attacks into Israel by the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, more than 2,700 people have been killed in the Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces clashed in southern Lebanon yesterday, and Israeli troops said two soldiers suffered moderate injuries.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for a security agreement and a halt to Israeli attacks before any meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in what would be a potentially historic encounter that Mr Trump has proposed hosting at the White House this month.