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Iran's foreign minister warned Sunday that any effort by commercial shipping to bypass Tehran's designated corridor through the Strait of Hormuz would intensify tensions in the Middle East, as American and Iranian forces exchanged military strikes across the waterway for the second time in as many days.
The clashes exposed the brittleness of a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire meant to bring a lasting end to the war launched by the United States and Israel in February, which had disrupted global shipping and sent energy markets into turmoil. Though the truce took effect in April, sporadic violence has persisted in the Gulf, with vessels transiting the strait repeatedly at the center of the conflict.
US Central Command said early Sunday it had struck 10 Iranian military targets in response to what it described as "continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping."
The strikes followed a Friday operation of similar scope, and were specifically linked to an Iranian drone attack on the Panama-flagged oil tanker Kiku. Iran responded by launching retaliatory strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, both of which condemned the attacks.
US President Donald Trump, writing on Truth Social on Saturday, warned that Iran would "no longer exist" if Washington were forced to resume full-scale hostilities. "United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!" Trump wrote.
Both governments have accused the other of ceasefire violations since the agreement came into force, despite language in the accord committing both sides, and their allies, to refrain from initiating military operations or threatening the use of force against each other.
At the heart of the renewed friction is Iran's insistence that ships transiting the strait, one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints, follow a corridor running close to its own coastline, a form of control it did not exercise before the war.
In normal times, roughly a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the waterway. This week, dozens of vessels defied that demand, sailing instead along the Omani coast on the opposite side of the strait.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued a pointed warning Sunday, saying any attempt to establish "new or separate arrangements" would lead to "more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz."
He urged all parties to honor the memorandum of understanding and not allow it to "deviate from its course." Iran's Revolutionary Guards separately announced they would handle vessels in breach of their traffic rules "more firmly than before."
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, wrote on X that so long as Iran managed the strait, Washington's "hegemonic dreams in the region will not be realised."
Under the memorandum reached this month, Iran agreed to allow safe, free passage of commercial vessels between the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman for a period of 60 days. Analysts said Tehran may be using controlled pressure in the strait as a negotiating lever.
HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, said "a drawn-out negotiation accompanied by controlled pressure in the strait can work to its advantage," adding that further Hormuz incidents were likely.
The fragile regional picture was further complicated Sunday by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, after Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a deal to end that conflict. Iran called the strikes "a blatant violation" of the truce arrangement.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah warned of "internal conflict" within Lebanon over the agreement signed this week between Beirut and Jerusalem, predicting it would not be implemented. The deal includes provisions to disarm Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group.
Lebanon was drawn into the wider war in early March, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Iran, prompting Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said Sunday that an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory was "an essential condition for reaching a final and lasting agreement."
Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran was "seriously pursuing this issue" of ending the Israeli occupation in Lebanon, in a call with Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri. Lebanese state media reported a new Israeli strike on the country's south Sunday, while the Israeli military confirmed that one of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon.
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