The US military said in a statement that it had ordered new airstrikes against Iran on Saturday after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps attacked a merchant ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. Central Command announced that the Cyprus-registered container ship M/V GFS Galaxy was unable to continue sailing due to an Iranian attack that caused a fire on board and caused significant damage to the engine room. According to Centcom, one civilian crew member is missing.
“In response, the United States is imposing a heavy price by continuing to reduce Iran’s ability to attack civilian seafarers and commercial vessels that freely transit the Straits,” Centcom said in a social media post.
“Iran made the wrong choice and is now paying the price,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a post on X.
The Revolutionary Guards said it had closed Hormuz to all shipping traffic “until further notice,” according to Iran’s state-run news agency Press TV.
“No vessels will be allowed to pass through the strait,” the Guard said in a statement published by Press TV.
Saturday’s airstrike marks the third time this week the United States has bombed Iran in retaliation for an attack on a merchant ship passing through Hormuz.
Iran attacked ships using the southern sea route off the coast of Oman, which is protected by U.S. forces. Tehran requires ships to use the northern route through its territorial waters.
On June 17, the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to reopen the strait. However, the US and Tehran governments are currently discussing the conditions for reopening Hormuz Island.
Under the agreement, Iran promised to use its “best efforts to coordinate” to ensure the safe passage of ships passing through Hormuz and agreed not to charge tolls for 60 days. However, the agreement left the exact shipping routes undefined.
“The fundamental problem here is that the memorandum does not reach an agreement on the management of shipping traffic through the strait,” said David Goldwyn, who served as the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for international energy issues under former President Barack Obama.
“It essentially undermined the issue,” Goldwyn said.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said last month that the U.S. military will “guarantee the flow of energy out of the Gulf, with or without a deal with Iran.”
“Iran no longer has the ability to close off the Strait of Hormuz. This is their key leverage, and we are trying to take that leverage away from them,” Wright said at a news conference in New York City on June 24.
Early Saturday morning, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Oman for talks with Foreign Minister Saeed Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi. Oman has become one of the key intermediaries in efforts to end the war between the United States and Iran.
A US official told MS Now that the country’s technical negotiation team was not involved in the talks in Oman.
A senior Middle East diplomat with direct knowledge of the talks told MS Now that France and Britain are considering a proposal drafted by Oman that could allow navigation tolls to be collected in the strait, as long as the tolls are not mandatory and there is support from the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, which regulates maritime shipping.
