U.S. says 2 of its destroyers are in the Gulf, 2 merchant ships got out

The U.S. military said two of its guided-missile destroyers had entered the Persian Gulf on Monday to break Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and that two merchant vessels had made it through the strait.

Those U.S.-flagged vessels are “safely headed on their journey,” said U.S. Central Command.

Iran said earlier on Monday it had prevented a U.S. warship from entering the Gulf.

The semi-official Fars news agency said two missiles had hit the warship near the port of Jask at the southern entrance to the strait. CENTCOM denied that any warship had been struck.

A senior Iranian official said Iran had fired a warning shot and that it was unclear whether the warship had been damaged.

CENTCOM said its forces are supporting President Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom,” which aims to “guide out” commercial ships stranded in the Gulf while enforcing the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

“American forces are actively assisting efforts to restore transit for commercial shipping,” it said.

The intervention appeared to raise the risk of a direct confrontation between the U.S. and Iran in a waterway that usually carries a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil and gas but has been blocked for two months as a result of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran.

The shipping industry remains to be convinced that the vital oil route, whose closure has damaged global business and trade, is safe to use, with little sign of progress toward a negotiated resolution. 

Trump gave few details of his plan to aid ships and their crews who have been confined to the vital waterway and are running low on food and other supplies.

“We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday.

In response to Trump’s announcement, Iran’s unified command told commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any movement that was not coordinated with Iran’s military, adding that it would attack any foreign armed forces if they “intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz.”

“We have repeatedly said the security of the Strait of Hormuz is in our hands and that the safe passage of vessels needs to be coordinated with the armed forces,” Ali Abdollahi, head of the forces’ unified command, said in the statement.

Iran has blocked nearly all shipping into and out of the Gulf apart from its own since the start of the war, cutting off around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments and sending oil prices soaring by 50 per cent or more.

CENTCOM said it would support Trump’s Project Freedom with 15,000 military personnel and more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, plus warships and drones.

Significant operational questions

Hundreds of commercial vessels and as many as 20,000 seafarers have been unable to transit the strait during the conflict, the International Maritime Organization says.

Container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd said on Monday that its risk assessment was unchanged and that transit through the strait was still not possible.

Executives from numerous shipping and oil industries have said they need an end to hostilities and some form of peace deal because they do not regard military ⁠convoys as a solution that would allow normal traffic to resume and the shipping industry to feel safe.

Some vessels attempting to transit the strait have reported being fired on, and Iran has seized others.

Soon after Trump’s comments on Sunday, the U.K.’s Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker had reported being hit by unknown projectiles in the strait. All its crew were reported safe in the incident, which occurred 78 nautical miles north of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates.

The Trump administration has been seeking help from other countries to form an international coalition to secure shipping in the strait. CENTCOM said the latest effort announced by Trump would combine “diplomatic action with military co-ordination.”

It was not ⁠immediately clear which countries the U.S. operation would aid or how the operation would work.

Trump faces domestic pressure to break Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz, which has driven up ⁠U.S. gasoline prices, threatening to cause a voter backlash against his Republican Party ‌in midterm congressional elections in November. The war has cost the U.S. an estimated $25 billion thus far, a Pentagon official testified in D.C. last week.

The United States and Israel suspended their bombing campaign against Iran four weeks ago, and U.S. and Iranian officials held one round of talks. But attempts to set up further meetings have so far ​failed.

Iranian state media said on Sunday Washington had conveyed its response ⁠to Iran’s 14-point proposal via mediator Pakistan, and that Tehran was now reviewing it.

Asked on Monday about the U.S. response to Tehran’s latest offer, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was “still faced with a side that both changes its views regularly and raises issues that could complicate any diplomatic process.”

Washington wants Tehran to give up its stockpile of more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, which the United States says could power a bomb.

Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, although it is willing to discuss some curbs in return for the lifting of sanctions. It had accepted such curbs in a 2015 multilateral deal that Trump abandoned.

Meanwhile, Pakistan said on Monday the U.S. had handed over 22 crew from an Iranian container vessel that American forces had seized last month in what Tehran called a violation of international ​law.

Pakistan described the U.S. move as a “confidence-building measure” as it looks to broker more ceasefire talks.