Middle East crisis live: US and Iran trade strikes in strait of Hormuz but Trump insists ceasefire remains ‘in effect’ | US-Israel war on Iran
Trump says truce with Iran still ‘in effect’
Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is still in place despite today’s exchanges of fire in the strait of Hormuz.
“The ceasefire is going – it’s in effect,” the president told US ABC News.
In relation to the US strikes on Iranian forces, he said: “It’s just a love tap.”
As reported earlier, the US military’s Central Command said it carried out “defensive strikes” on Iranian assets after “unprovoked Iranian attacks” on three US destroyers in the strait.
Iran’s top joint military command accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships in the waterway and attacking civilian areas.
Key events
Trump shelved ‘Project Freedom’ after Saudi pushback
Patrick Wintour
A refusal by Saudi Arabia to allow the US to use its bases and airspace to provide a military escort for oil tankers passing through the strait of Hormuz lay behind Donald Trump’s decision to shelve the plan days after it had been launched.
Riyadh told the White House it would not allow its Prince Sultan airbase to be used to mount the operation billed as Project Freedom, which the US presented as the successor to the bombing campaign called Operation Epic Fury.
Saudi Arabia refused to drop its objections despite a personal call between the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and Trump, NBC reported.
The confrontation – not denied by Riyadh – underlines Saudi Arabia’s desire for a permanent end to the damaging US-Israel war on Iran on almost any terms, in contrast to its more assertive Gulf neighbour, the United Arab Emirates.
In a sign of the Emirates’ frustration with Riyadh’s caution, the UAE has already quit the Saudi-dominated oil producers’ club, Opec, and is now considering leaving the Arab League as well.
The UAE as a signatory to the Abraham accords has long been closer to Israel, but the tensions within the Gulf have widened as the war has dragged on, causing untold damage to their economies and international image.
The full report is here:
Before today’s exchange of fire in the strait of Hormuz, Iran established a new government agency to approve transit and collect tolls from shipping in the waterway, shipping data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said on Thursday.
The move has raised concerns about eroding the freedom of navigation on which global trade depends.
The agency – called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority – is “positioning itself as the only valid authority to grant permission to ships transiting the strait”, Lloyd’s reported in an online briefing cited by the Associated Press.
Lloyd’s said the authority had emailed it an application form for ships seeking passage.
The new Iranian agency formalises an existing – albeit murky – vetting lane that takes vessels through the strait’s northern waters near the Iranian coastline, the AP report says. Iran controls which ships are allowed to pass and, for at least some vessels, imposes a tax on their cargo.
Maritime law experts say Iran’s demands to vet or tax vessels violate international law. The UN convention on the law of the sea calls for countries to permit peaceful passage through their territorial waters.
The US and its Gulf allies are pushing for the UN security council to support a resolution that condemns Iran’s chokehold on the Hormuz strait and threatens sanctions. A prior resolution calling for reopening the strait was vetoed by Iran allies Russia and China.
Donald Trump also said an agreement with Tehran on ending the war “might not happen, but it could happen any day”.
“I believe they want the deal more than I do,” he told reporters in Washington DC.
Trump said “we’re negotiating with the Iranians” and reiterated the ceasefire was still in effect.
double quotation mark Yeah, it is. They trifled with us today. We blew them away. They trifled. I call that a trifle.
Asked about whether Iran had official responded to what a news report said was a US one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war, Trump said:
double quotation mark Well, it’s more than a one-page offer. It’s an offer that basically said they will not have nuclear weapons. They’re going to hand us the nuclear dust and many other things that we want.
Trump has used nuclear dust to refer to Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and to what might remain after the US-Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear installations last year.
But as Reuters is reporting, before today’s the exchange of fire in the strait of Hormuz, the US had floated a proposal that would formally end the conflict but did not address key US demands that Iran suspend its nuclear work and reopen the waterway.
Tehran says it has not yet reached a conclusion on the emerging plan.
Donald Trump has told reporters the US is still negotiating with Iran, reports are saying, after the fresh exchange of fire between the two countries in the strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s armed forces also exchanged fire with the US on Qeshm Island in the strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media.
It is the largest Iranian island in the Gulf and home to about 150,000 people. It houses a water desalination plant as well, the AP says.
Iranian state media also reported loud noises and what it called defensive fire in western Tehran.
In southern Iran, explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas, the semiofficial Iranian news agencies Fars and Tasnim said, without identifing the source of the blasts.
Trump says truce with Iran still ‘in effect’
Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is still in place despite today’s exchanges of fire in the strait of Hormuz.
“The ceasefire is going – it’s in effect,” the president told US ABC News.
In relation to the US strikes on Iranian forces, he said: “It’s just a love tap.”
As reported earlier, the US military’s Central Command said it carried out “defensive strikes” on Iranian assets after “unprovoked Iranian attacks” on three US destroyers in the strait.
Iran’s top joint military command accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships in the waterway and attacking civilian areas.
Trump threatens to hit Iran ‘a lot more violently’ if deal not reached quickly
Donald Trump is saying “great damage” was done to the Iranian forces that attacked the US destroyers in the strait of Hormuz.
He also said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the US would knock out Iran “a lot harder and a lot more violently” if it didn’t agree to a peace deal “FAST”.
The US president said the three US destroyers successfully transited out of the Hormuz strait under fire and without damage but there was “great damage” done to the Iranian attackers.
double quotation mark They were completely destroyed along with numerous small boats, which are being used to take the place of their fully decapitated Navy. These boats went to the bottom of the Sea, quickly and efficiently. Missiles were shot at our Destroyers, and were easily knocked down. Likewise, drones came, and were incinerated while in the air. They dropped ever so beautifully down to the Ocean, very much like a butterfly dropping to its grave!
Trump also said Iran was being “led by LUNATICS” and repeated his regular theme that Tehran would use a nuclear weapon if it had chance, but said “they’ll never have that opportunity”.
Donald Trump has reportedly told US ABC News the ceasefire with Iran is still going and “in effect” despite today’s new strikes.
The US military’s Central Command has named the navy destroyers it says were attacked by Iran in the strait of Hormuz as the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta and USS Mason.
As mentioned earlier, it said Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as the vessels transited the waterway but that none were hit.
It added in the statement posted on social media:
double quotation mark CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces.”
US Central Command says it conducted ‘defensive strikes’ against ‘unprovoked Iranian attacks’ in strait of Hormuz
And now we have some confirmation of fresh strikes from US Central Command.
US forces intercepted “unprovoked Iranian attacks” and responded with “self-defense strikes” as US Navy guided-missile destroyers transited the strait of Hormuz, Centcom said.
“Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats” as three US destroyers transited the waterway, Centcom said. “No US assets were struck.”
Centcom added that it “eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces including missile and drone launch sites; command and control locations; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes.”
Iran says it is attacking US military vessels after US ‘violated’ ceasefire with fresh strikes
Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, the country’s top joint military command said early on Friday (local time in Tehran is almost 1am).
The US targeted “an Iranian oil tanker travelling from Iran’s coastal waters near Jask toward the strait of Hormuz, as well as another vessel entering the strait of Hormuz near the Emirati port of Fujairah,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement carried by state media.
“At the same time, with the cooperation of some regional countries, they carried out air attacks on civilian areas along the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik, and Qeshm Island.”
Iran’s armed forces responded by attacking US military vessels, “reportedly inflicting significant damage on them,” the spokesperson said.
There’s been no word yet from the US military.
Iran targets three US destroyers near strait of Hormuz, Iranian media reports
Three US Navy destroyers near the strait of Hormuz have been targeted by the Iranian navy, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reports.
It comes after an earlier report from Iran’s state broadcaster that “enemy units” operating in the area of the strait came under Iranian missile fire, following an attack by the US military on an Iranian oil tanker, forcing the units to retreat.
It follows a US jet disabling an Iranian oil tanker on Wednesday after it attempted to evade the US blockade.
I’ll bring you more on this as well as any comment from Washington as we get it.
Air defences activated in Tehran and more explosions heard in southern Iran
Iran’s Mehr news agency reports that air defences have been activated in western Tehran “countering hostile targets”.
Mehr also said another explosion had been heard in Bandar Abbas, along with an explosion heard in Minab, to the east of Bandar Abbas. Both areas lie north of the strait of Hormuz.
