Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has opened fire on and damaged a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz as planned ceasefire talks in Pakistan failed to materialise.
The morning attack by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard came after US president Donald Trump said America would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, which had been due to expire on Wednesday, to give Tehran time to come up with a “unified proposal” ahead of possible negotiations.
Iran has offered no formal acknowledgment of Mr Trump’s ceasefire extension.
Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Mr Trump for agreeing to the extension, saying it would buy time for ongoing diplomatic efforts.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said the attack happened at around 7.55am local time in the strait and targeted a container ship.
The UKMTO said no-one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the attack.
Iran’s semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies, believed to be close to the Guard, both reported on the attack, citing the UKMTO.
Fars went further to describe Iran as “lawfully enforcing” its control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s crude oil and natural gas once passed.
Iran’s Nour News, however, reported that the Guard only opened fire on the ship after it had “ignored the warnings of the Iranian armed forces”.
However, the strait had been considered an international waterway for the world’s shippers despite being in the territorial waters of both Iran and Oman.
It comes after the US seized an Iranian container ship after shooting it at the weekend and boarded an oil tanker associated with Iran’s oil trade in the Indian Ocean.
Mr Trump said the US would continue its blockade of Iranian ports, which Iran has called “unacceptable”, and has indicated was a reason it had not yet agreed to join talks in Islamabad.
The Revolutionary Guard vowed to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets in the region”.
In peacetime, about 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas transits the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open oceans and was fully open until the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 to start the war.
Since then, Tehran has throttled shipping traffic through the strait, causing oil prices to skyrocket and having an impact on global economies.