THE United States (US) and Iran exchanged heavy air assaults, marking the latest to escalate in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks
Tehran said it targeted US military assets across the Gulf and had closed the vital Strait of Hormuz, as the US accused Iran of attacking another ship
The renewed hostilities casts further doubt on the future of an interim US-Iranian agreement last month that aimed to reopen the strait and end the war after 60 days of negotiations.
“We’re beating them up,” US President, Donald Trump, said in a phone interview with Reuters on Sunday, July 12, adding: “We’ll become the guardian of the strait.”
During a phone interview with Fox News, Trump said the US would probably take over the Strait of Hormuz and should be reimbursed for controlling the vital waterway.
“We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it. We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that.
“We’re going to guard it. We’re going to get paid for guarding it, a lot of money.
“We’re going to be reimbursed, because the other nations are very wealthy. They’re on our side, and we can’t be expected to do that for nothing.”
The US leader has repeatedly asserted since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran that US forces controlled the strait.
However, Iran has continued to exercise leverage over its adversaries by threatening and sometimes attacking shipping in the waterway, with knock-on effects on the world economy.
“We had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it,” he said on the channel’s ‘Fox & Friends’ programme, referring to the interim deal between Washington and Tehran that he said last week was “over.”
Iran has accused the US of being the first to violate the deal and has said it would not respect the terms until the US did.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), July 13, that the only way to restore regular shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was to end US military interventions in the waterway, warning that “continued interference could lead to greater incidents in the global oil and gas sector.”
An Indian crew member was still missing after the Cyprus-flagged GFS Galaxy container ship was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.
The US military said it launched fresh strikes against Iran after the IRGC forces attacked the ship.
Cypriot authorities said the vessel was struck by an “unidentified projectile” while transiting the waterway early on Sunday.
The IRGC navy said it had struck and halted a vessel that had “jeopardised maritime security by switching off its systems” after it, along with other vessels, attempted to transit through an unauthorized route despite warnings to correct its course.
The crew abandoned the ship on a lifeboat and 23 crew members were later rescued by the Oman Navy, Cyprus’s Deputy Ministry of Shipping said.
“The vessel is currently under tow toward the nearest safe anchorage at the UAE port of Khor Fakkan. The towing team is actively conducting a search operation to locate the missing crew member,” the ministry added.
Traffic through Hormuz has dropped significantly. Ship tracking firm, MarineTraffic, said on Monday that vessel activity through the Strait of Hormuz declined by about 52 per cent over July 10 to 12, compared with the previous week.
US strikes on several locations in the Iranian city of Abadan have killed two people and injured three, the state news agency, IRNA, reported, citing a provincial deputy governor.
Abadan is located in southwestern Iran, near the border with Iraq and the Iraqi city of Basrah.
Meanwhile, Bahrain said it has intercepted Iranian drones and missiles, following the US strikes. IRGC said on Monday they had targeted US military facilities across the Gulf, including in Bahrain, in response to US strikes.
Bahrain Defence Force said its air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed several Iranian missile and drone attacks earlier in the day, adding that Iran continued to target civilians in the kingdom.
