Twoships came under attackWednesday in theStrait of Hormuz, the critical waterway connecting the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. The attacks came hours after United States Donald Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran. The attacks could complicate efforts to bring the United States and Iran together in Pakistan for the second round of talks to end the war.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre did not immediately identify who shot at the second ship. However, suspicion immediately fell on Iran, whose paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as the cargo ship said it had been fired upon and was stopped in the water. It said there was no reported damage to the vessel.
Earlier today, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman, however, no one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the attack.
The UK Maritime Traffic Organisation (UKMTO) said a Guard gunboat did not hail the ship before firing. The ship was approached by an Iranian gunboat that gave no radio warning before it “fired upon the vessel,” and caused “heavy damage to the bridge,” the maritime authority said, citing the master of the container ship.
Iran’s semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies, believed to be close to the Guard, both reported on the attack, citing the UKMTO. Fars said that Iran was “lawfully enforcing” its control over the Strait of Hormuz. Nour News, a website long affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the Guard opened fire on the container ship after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces.”
Meanwhile, Britain and France are gathering military planners from about 30 countries to flesh out details of a mission to provide security in the Strait of Hormuz — if and when the key shipping route reopens.
Britain’s Defence Ministry said the two-day meeting at a UK command-and-control center in London aims to “turn diplomatic consensus into a detailed military plan.” The plan is for an international mission to protect merchant vessels, clear mines and provide reassurance, and is dependent on a “sustainable” ceasefire being reached in the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Countries, including France and the UK, have pledged to send ships and mine-clearing drones. Despite skepticism that the plan will ever be put into action, British Defence Secretary John Healey said Wednesday he is “confident that, over the next two days, real progress can be made.”
Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More
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