The US launched strikes on Iran for a third day and Iran retaliated with strikes on US allies and tankers, hours after Donald Trump said the US would take control of the strait of Hormuz and charge a toll to ships for safe passage.
The US military said its five-hour operation early on Tuesday hit targets across Iran, including in the port cities of Bushehr and Bandar Abbas. It shared videos of strikes that it said were meant to “degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping”.
More explosions were heard around noon on Tuesday west of Bandar Abbas, as well as in Bushehr and Choghadak, according to Iranian state TV, though no party had yet claimed responsibility.
Iran targeted Bahrain, which houses the US Navy’s fifth fleet; Jordan, which hosts US air force assets; and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates in the strait of Hormuz.
Bahrain said it had intercepted several of the attacks and accused Iran of targeting civilians, after explosions were heard in its capital, Manama. Jordan said it intercepted four missiles from Iran.
The attacks threaten a return to all-out war and are a significant block to efforts to reopen the strait of Hormuz. Iran in effect closed the strait during the four-month war with the US, and the US imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ships in response. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries was supposed to reopen the strait but flares in violence and breakdowns in negotiations have hindered free navigation in the waterway.
On Monday, Trump said the US would control the strait and charge ships up to a 20% toll for safe passage, a reversal of the previous US position that no country was allowed to charge tolls through the international waterway under the rules of freedom of navigation. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had strongly objected to Iran’s plan to impose fees.
The two countries are now almost halfway through the 60-day period set out by the MoU that was supposed to give room for negotiations to reach a final truce. The sides have made little progress on key matters such as the strait, Iran’s disputed nuclear programme and regional issues.
The US has threatened to reopen the strait by force, which analysts have said would require a military campaign involving tens of thousands of US troops.
US attacks on Iran have killed at least 28 people since last week, according to a tally by Agence France-Presse.
The Indian foreign ministry said it was lodging a strong protest with Iran and summoned its deputy ambassador after one Indian seafarer was killed and 10 other Indians were seriously wounded by Iranian attacks on two tankers.
The UAE threatened to retaliate against Iran for the attacks. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed the attack, saying the vessels “ignored repeated warnings”.
Iran called on Jordan to disband US bases in the kingdom. Addressing Jordan, the IRGC said in a statement: “Not only do we not have any enmity with your country, but we also love you.”
The EU’s Aviation Safety Agency issued a warning for airlines on Tuesday, telling them to avoid flying over the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and above the Gulf of Oman. It said “unpredictable military developments” created a risk to civil flights.
The US threat to impose tolls on ships transiting the strait, which Trump described as a protection fee, risks upsetting global norms on shipping and hundreds of years of US support for freedom of navigation.
Trump suggested the US would charge ships 20% of the value of their cargo to help cover “any and all costs necessary to do to the job of providing safety and security”.
Iran has insisted the US will have no role in the strait. Its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Tehran would be the guardian of the strait “for ever”. On Trump’s threat, Araghchi said on X: “20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”
The price of crude oil rose to a four-week high of more than $86 a barrel on Tuesday but prices are still below their peak during the war, when they hit nearly $120 a barrel.
Lebanese and Israeli delegations were due to meet in Rome on Tuesday to continue US-mediated negotiations. Lebanon is seeking an Israeli withdrawal from the more than 600 sq km of the country that it occupies, though hopes for a swift withdrawal were low.
Last month Lebanon and Israel announced they had reached a “framework agreement” under which Israeli troops would withdraw from “pilot areas” in south Lebanon. The Lebanese army would then enter those areas, with the promise that they would prevent Hezbollah from returning and continue to dismantle the armed group’s infrastructure there.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, told reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that it was ready to move forward in implementing two pilot zones, and that the framework agreement was “the only way forward”.
The office of the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, said in a statement on Monday that he had tasked the Lebanese delegation to demand the immediate start of Israeli withdrawal from the two pilot zones before any other discussions were held.
A US military delegation was in Lebanon over the weekend to discuss the pilot zone plan in detail, according to Reuters.
The negotiations are between the Lebanese government and Israel. Hezbollah is not a party to the talks. Hezbollah has repeatedly called on the government to stop the talks, framing the direct negotiations as a surrender. It is unclear how agreements from the talks would be implemented on the ground without Hezbollah’s cooperation.
