Iranian state media has claimed an Iranian commercial vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz late Saturday, killing one person, amid an ongoing battle between the US and Iran for control over the crucial energy chokepoint.
It comes at the same time as Iran-backed rebels in Yemen step up attacks and advance in their efforts to control a second vital waterway in the region, which could put further pressure on global oil prices.
The Hormuz attack, which Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB said injured four others, took place early morning local time near Qeshm Island in the strait and comes a day before Tehran is set to meet regional leaders in Oman to discuss managing shipping traffic through the vital waterway.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted the Qeshm governor as blaming a “terrorist enemy” for the attack.
The US has not commented on the reported attack and CNN has reached out to US Central Command for comment.
US forces have previously struck Iranian-flagged vessels as it maintains a blockade of Iranian ports and faces the renewed threat of Iranian ballistic missiles launched at its warships.
Qeshm Island, which is about 14 miles from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, is key to Iran asserting control over traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 million barrels of oil passed every day before the war. Traffic remains about 90% below pre-conflict levels.
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Separately, another vessel was hit by an unknown projectile in the strait late on Saturday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO).
The UKMTO said a fire broke out and that local authorities were helping evacuate crew members. It did not provided details of which state the vessel is registered.
Top diplomats from Gulf Arab states are expected to meet with Iran’s foreign minister in Oman on Monday to discuss the management of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Saturday.
However, Bahrain has said it will not attend, and it was not clear which other nations would be there.
Iran has been negotiating for months with Oman, which controls the opposite bank of the strait, over a deal that could govern shipping through it.
However, Iran has played down the prospects of a breakthrough. President Masoud Pezeshkian told broadcaster India Today TV on Saturday that: “The waterway would be opened up on the condition that the US will terminate its blockade.”
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said on X: “As long as the American side does not accept all of Iran’s conditions, dialogue and negotiation are of no use.”
Iran-backed Houthis attack Saudi base
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack on a Saudi military base in the Sharurah region.
Houthis have recently stepped up their fighting against Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, and have expanded their area of control to near a vital Red Sea waterway linked Asia to Europe.
The Houthis’ spokesperson Yahya Saree said a “barrage of ballistic missiles and drones” were used to target “weapons depots and command and control rooms” but he did not specify when the attack took place.
On Saturday, the Houthis had claimed that Saudi forces launched 129 airstrikes across Houthi-held areas of Yemen.
Last week, the Houthis captured Perim Island, at the mouth of the Red Sea. The island splits the vital Bab al-Mandeb Strait in two, giving Tehran de facto control over another key shipping route in addition to the Strait of Hormuz.
RELATED STORY | Yemen's Houthis capture a Red Sea island in a threat to shipping
Earlier this week, a source told CNN that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had spoken twice with US President Donald Trump to urge him to strike the Houthis as the militia advances across Yemen toward the Red Sea, but Trump declined.
Yemen’s National Resistance Factions, military groups alligned with the Yemeni government, said Sunday that more than 500 of its fighters had been killed in the three-week Houthi offensive on Yemen’s western coast.
Saudi Arabia said Saturday it had temporarily closed its East-West pipeline as a precaution after a drone attack. Both Baghdad and Riyadh said the attack had originated in Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate.
When asked about Saudi concerns after the pipeline closure and moving marine traffic through the strait, Trump said everything will “work out fine.”
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