Iran said it alone will manage the Strait of Hormuz, while U.S. officials warned that American forces will strike again if Tehran attacks shipping or regional targets.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The United States and Iran signaled Sunday that neither side intends to retreat in a growing dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz, after a weekend of military exchanges that threatened to unravel a ceasefire agreement and memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Iran bears sole responsibility for reopening and managing the strait, a key oil shipping route that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil on a normal day. His comments were reported by Iranian state-run and semi-official media.
“Based on the memorandum of understanding, the Strait of Hormuz, under the management that Iran will adopt, will return to its pre-war capacity within 30 days, after the obstacles are removed by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Araghchi said, according to remarks carried by the semi-official IRNA agency.
“I ask all parties not to interfere in the issue of managing the Strait of Hormuz … and not to allow this memorandum of understanding to deviate from its course,” he added.
The Trump administration has rejected Iran’s position, saying Tehran cannot impose controls, fees or fines on vessels passing through the waterway. Under the memorandum of understanding released earlier in June, the strait was to be reopened after Iranian threats and attacks against ships in the region.
The latest escalation began after Iran was blamed for an attack on a ship in the area, prompting the U.S. military to strike Iranian targets over the weekend. Tehran then launched attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait, two oil-rich Gulf countries located near Iran and home to U.S. military facilities.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Sunday that American forces would target Iranian military infrastructure again if Tehran continues attacking or threatening ships in the strait.
“If the Iranian regime thinks for a second that President [Donald] Trump is going to sit by, stand by, while Iran continues to attack international shipping without a response, or our bases without a response, they’re sadly mistaken,” Waltz said during an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”
Waltz said the administration would act “militarily, if needed,” to destroy infrastructure Iran uses to control the waterway.
He said the United States would “militarily, if needed, take down their infrastructure that they’re trying to use to illegally control an international waterway,” adding, “Don’t think for a second that President Trump isn’t going to leave every option on the table to achieve not just our aim, the entire world’s aim that Iran never has a nuke.”
Trump issued his own warning Saturday evening, saying Iran could face a broader U.S. military response if it continues violating the ceasefire.
“United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” Trump wrote. “It is very possible that they will never learn! There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced militarily complete the job that we very successfully started.”
The United States and Iran have been negotiating the terms of an interim deal that covers shipping arrangements in the strait, the removal of a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, sanctions and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the memorandum signed this month, the two sides have 60 days to settle the details.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait.
Kuwait’s armed forces, whose country hosts a major U.S. military base, said on social media that it intercepted two ballistic missiles. No injuries or damage were immediately confirmed.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said Iranian strikes damaged a residential building near the international airport. Local media reported that no one was killed.
U.S. Central Command said on social media that it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” after Iran struck the M/T Kiku, a Panama-flagged crude oil tanker, earlier Saturday.
CENTCOM said in a separate post that U.S. fighter jets struck 10 Iranian military targets inside and near the Strait of Hormuz in response to the attack on the M/T Kiku.
Iranian officials continued asserting control over the strait after the strikes. Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Commission, said in an X post that ships and other countries must comply with Tehran’s directives.
“We unequivocally support the ever-victorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ decisive action against the American enemy and the assertion of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz,” Rezaei said.
“The Strait of Hormuz will not return to its previous state, and others have no choice but to submit to Iran’s directives in the Strait,” he added.
Rezaei’s comments came after Trump warned June 27 that the U.S. military may “complete the job” if Tehran does not comply with the ceasefire agreement. The interim memorandum includes provisions intended to guarantee toll-free vessel passage through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days.
Britain also condemned the Iranian attacks. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in an X post that the attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz threatened civilians and freedom of navigation.
“I strongly condemn the recent attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and in the Strait of Hormuz,” Cooper said.
“These reckless attacks, including on international shipping, are putting civilian lives at risk, and curtailing freedom of navigation. The implementation of the US–Iran agreement is essential to keep people safe and ships moving,” she added.
Qatar also reported a death linked to military activity in the region. A Qatari national was killed after being injured by shrapnel from “military operations in the area” after a vessel carrying him and another person went missing, Reuters reported Sunday.
Citing Qatar’s Interior Ministry, Reuters reported that a second person was injured and that authorities located the missing vessel after search operations began June 27.
The ministry did not identify the location of the incident or say whether the shrapnel was connected to Iranian drones launched against U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The latest exchanges have placed the U.S.-Iran memorandum under severe strain. Iran is claiming authority over the Strait of Hormuz, while the United States says the waterway must remain open and free of Iranian-imposed controls. With attacks now involving commercial shipping and several Gulf states, the dispute over the strait has become the central test of whether the ceasefire can survive.