The Trump administration, sidestepping a widening battle in and around the Strait of Hormuz, said it was anticipating a reply from Tehran on Friday on its latest terms for ending the war.
“I hope it’s a serious offer,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a visit to Italy, even as U.S. warplanes struck and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that the U.S. Central Command said were attempting to violate its naval blockade by entering an Iranian port along the Gulf of Oman.
Rubio’s Iranian counterpart warned that President Donald Trump was stepping into “another quagmire.” In a social media post, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure. Is it a crude pressure tactic?”
The comments came as the United Arab Emirates said that its air defense systems had engaged two ballistic missiles and three drones launched from Iran. On Thursday, Iran charged that UAE warplanes had participated in a U.S. strike against Qeshm island in the strait and the coastal city of Bandar Abbas.
In the continuing exchange of hostilities, the Iranian military claimed it had struck and damaged three U.S. destroyers Thursday with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones in retaliation for a U.S. attack on an Iranian merchant ship Wednesday, but Trump said the destroyers had exited the strait unscathed.
Tehran described both the Wednesday and Thursday U.S. attacks as a violation of the temporary ceasefire declared in early April.
The Trump administration has tried to separate its blockade operation from its brief “Project Freedom” mission to clear a transit path through the strait using warships, jets and drones. Trump called a temporary halt to Project Freedom earlier this week — after little more than a day of running operations — at the request of regional partners to allow negotiations on a peace agreement to proceed.
Despite multiple military strikes throughout the week by both sides, Trump and his top military officials have stressed that they have not crossed the line into combat and that the ceasefire is still in place. On Thursday evening, Trump called the fire exchanges a “trifle.”
The two empty tankers — the M/T Sea Star III and M/T Seveda — were struck by munitions fired from a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet launched from the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush, Central Command said.
In a statement, Central Command said that its blockade, preventing any ships entering or leaving Iranian ports, remains fully in effect. It said there are more than 70 tankers being prevented from approaching Iranian harbors, with the capacity to transport more than 166 million barrels of oil worth more than $13 billion.
The U.S. and its Persian Gulf allies have demanded that Iran lift its own prevention of traffic through the strait, which it claims as under its military control.
The U.S. peace offer currently awaiting an Iranian reply demands that Tehran allow free traffic through the waterway — a key transit route for more than 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supplies — remove all mines it has placed there and cease charging tolls. It does not speak to an end to the U.S. blockade, which Iran has said publicly is on its own list of demands.
Earlier this week, Iran announced what it said was a new agency that would control traffic in the strait. “This would … actually be unacceptable,” Rubio said in remarks to reporters Friday. “But we’re expecting a response from them today at some point” to the U.S. proposal sent last weekend, which was in itself in response to an Iranian 14-point peace plan.
“We have not received that yet … but perhaps that will come,” Rubio said. “Their system is still highly fractured and a bit dysfunctional as well, so that may be serving as an impediment.”
Adam Taylor in Rome contributed to this report.
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