Iran’s Drone Strike in Hormuz Is a ‘Foolish Violation’ of the Ceasefire Agreement, Trump Says

As the Islamic Republic challenges free shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, America is quietly recruiting Gulf countries, including Iran’s ally Oman, to push back against Tehran’s intent to charge fees for the right to use an international waterway. Thursday’s drone strike on a Singapore-flagged vessel, the Ever Lovely, was a literal Iranian shot across the bow. It was designed to warn ships against using the southern corridor of the strait, where the Lovely was attacked. On Oman’s shore, that corridor was designated a free shipping lane during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s swing across three Gulf countries. A joint statement issued Thursday by Mr. Rubio and the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council promised free shipping in the southern corridor. It referred to the June 17 American-Iranian Memorandum of Understanding, which conditioned a 60-day ceasefire pact on opening Hormuz to all. In their Thursday statement, Mr. Rubio and the Gulf ministers “rejected any tolls, fees, or attempts to assert control over the Strait, and welcomed the Sultanate of Oman and the International Maritime Organization’s announcement on the launch of an evacuation plan for over 11,000 seafarers stranded in the region.”Since the Iranian attack on Thursday “four vessels were reported to transit, using the northern corridor, and 11 vessels transit through the southern corridor,” the United Nations IMO’s secretary general, Arsenio Rodriguez, told the Sun Friday. Regardless, Iran’s challenge to the establishment of a sea route outside of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ control could chill free navigation not only in Hormuz, but elsewhere. IRGC officials are threatening a shutdown of Bab el Mandeb, a narrow entryway to the vital sealane of the Red Sea. Asked if the Thursday strike violated paragraph 5 of the ceasefire memorandum, which demands an end to interference in Hormuz Strait traffic, Mr. Rodriguez said that it’s not up to him to judge. “I’m hoping that this is an isolated incident,” he added.Mr. Rodriguez told the Sun that he is trying to utilize the American-Iranian MoU and other “positive steps” to help “the evacuations of the seafarers, the demining of the Strait of Hormuz, and then resumption of trade in the way that it was happening before the conflict.” Mr. Trump was initially mum about the Thursday attack on the Ever Lovely. On Friday, though, he wrote on TruthSocial that “the Islamic Republic of Iran shot at least four one way attack drones at ships transversing the Strait of Hormuz,” adding, “obviously, this is a foolish violation of our Ceasefire Agreement.”Mr. Trump is hoping that declaring the strait open will end a crisis that raised the price of gasoline at the pump while Americans are settling in for a summer of travel on the eve of the November midterm elections. Tehran, though, is just as adamant on countering America’s goals and utilizing oil markets fears to assert its power across the region. The Iranians are “trying to exercise sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, and that should warrant aggressive pushback by the United States and its allies and partners,” the executive director at United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun. His organization monitors shipping in the region.Yet Mr. Trump — and even more so Vice President Vance — seem reluctant to renew kinetic action against Iran. Mr. Rubio’s trip to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain this week was designed to unite Gulf states behind the idea that navigation at Hormuz, which many of them rely on for exporting oil and natural gas, needs to be free for all, with no Iranian tolls.In his Gulf visits, Mrs. Rubio “struck a harder tone toward Iran than recent comments by Vance or even Trump,” a widely followed Berlin-based Iran watcher, Hamidreza Azizi, writes on X. One of Mr. Rubio’s goals, he writes, is to bring Gulf countries, “especially Oman, on board in preventing Iran from establishing control over the strait.”The Iranian regime has long considered the Sultanate of Oman an ally. It tried to work with Muscat to levy fees for ship travel through the Strait of Hormuz. In his trip, Mr. Rubio, at least for now, turned the Omanis around, establishing the Hormuz southern corridor. The IRGC attack on the Ever Lovely is warning ships to stick to the northern corridor, where Iran has full control. To further reassure skeptical Gulf countries, America might need to back diplomacy with some muscle.

Iran’s Drone Strike in Hormuz Is a ‘Foolish Violation’ of the Ceasefire Agreement, Trump Says

Iran’s Drone Strike in Hormuz Is a ‘Foolish Violation’ of the Ceasefire Agreement, Trump Says

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