Iran Launches Drone Attack on U.S. Warships as Nuclear Talks Hang in the Balance

Iran launched a drone attack on U.S. military vessels in the Gulf of Oman amid growing uncertainty over a new round of negotiations between Tehran and Washington.The drone attack was reported by the Iranian semi-official news agency Tasnim and came after a spokesperson for Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya, threatened to respond to the U.S. Navy seizing an Iranian-linked vessel on Sunday. “We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying by Iranian state media. The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) released footage of helicopters and U.S. Marines boarding the Iranian-linked vessel, M/V Touska. CENTCOM said the marines departed amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) by helicopter and transited over the Arabian Sea to board and seize the vessel. “The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 19, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska’s propulsion when the commercial ship failed to comply with repeated warnings from U.S. forces over a six-hour period,” the statement added. Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead an American delegation toIslamabad today. President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, andspecial envoy Steve Witkoff, will join JD Vance in the Pakistani capital.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, announced on Monday that Tehran has “no plans for the next round of negotiation, and no decision has been made in this regard.”Ebrahim Azizi, a former commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), meanwhile told BBC that the regime will never agree to give up control of the Strait of Hormuz. “It’s our inalienable right. Iran will decide the right of passage, including permissions for vessels to pass through the Strait,” he said. “We are introducing a bill in parliament, based on article 110 of the constitution, which includes the environment, maritime safety and national security – and the armed forces will implement the law,” Mr. Azizi added. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also stressed that the Strait of Hormuz is “under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran.“If the US does not abandon the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will certainly be restricted. We confronted the US attempt at mine-clearing decisively and consider it a violation of the ceasefire, and we went as far as the stage of confrontation, but the enemy retreated,” he said.Mr. Ghalibaf said he told the American delegation in charge of negotiations that if U.S. minesweepers “moved even slightly forward from its position, we would definitely fire at it. They asked for 15 minutes to issue the order to return, and they did.”President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a phone call on Sunday evening that the U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz, along with “threatening rhetoric by US officials against Iran, only lead to intensifying mistrust regarding America’s seriousness and further reveal that the US seeks to repeat previous patterns and betray diplomacy.”

Iran Launches Drone Attack on U.S. Warships as Nuclear Talks Hang in the Balance

Iran Launches Drone Attack on U.S. Warships as Nuclear Talks Hang in the Balance

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