United States President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that three US naval destroyers were attacked while crossing the Strait of Hormuz, but said that the ceasefire with Iran remained intact, dismissing the incident as “a trifle”, AFP reported.
However, oil prices rose on Friday after the exchange of fire between the two countries.
The price of benchmark Brent crude rose 1.7% to $101.8 per barrel after falling for three days. The price of Brent was $78 per barrel on February 27, a day before the conflict started.
The fresh tensions came even as the US blockade of Iranian ports remains in force to monitor maritime traffic linked to Iran amid stalled peace talks between Washington and Tehran to end the conflict in West Asia. Ships travelling to or from non-Iranian ports are allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under the blockade.
On Thursday, the US military said that it carried out strikes on Iranian military targets in response, while Tehran accused Washington of initiating the exchange of fire.
US Central Command claimed on social media that Iranian forces launched “multiple missiles, drones and small boats” at the three US warships, but none were hit. It added that the US forces had “eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible”.
Trump said on social media that there was “no damage done to the three destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers”.
Iran’s central military command accused the US of violating the ceasefire by attacking an oil tanker and another ship, AFP reported. It added that Tehran’s forces “immediately and in retaliation attacked American vessels”.
Trump, later on Thursday, when asked in Washington whether the ceasefire with Iran was still in place, replied: “Yeah it is. They trifled with us today.”
“We blew them away,” AFP quoted him as saying. “They trifled. I call that a trifle.”
The incident came a day after Trump said that he believed Washington and Tehran were close to reaching a peace deal.
There is a “very good chance” of the conflict ending, the US president had said. “And if it doesn’t end, we have to go back to bombing the hell out of them,” he added.
On Thursday as well, Trump warned that the US would “knock [Iran] out a lot faster, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their deal signed, fast!”.
The war
The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran’s action posed an existential threat to Israel. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security. Iran retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region, targeting major cities in Gulf countries and ships.
Tehran also effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterbody connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, for most international commercial vessels, triggering a global energy crisis. About 20% of global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.
The peace talks between Iran and the US that were held in Islamabad, Pakistan collapsed on April 12 but the ceasefire in the region has largely held.
Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.
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