US says Iran should give answer on Friday as clashes raise tensions

THE US said it expects Iran to respond to President Donald Trump’s latest proposal to end their war imminently, as overnight clashes threatened to further fracture a monthlong ceasefire.

Iran “should” give an answer on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters.

Iran has still given no indication whether it will accept Trump’s plan, sent on Wednesday, which proposes that Teheran reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the US end a blockade on Iranian ports over the next month.

The one-page document implies Iran’s acceptance would end the war, which has killed thousands of people across the Middle East and sent energy prices soaring, even though the two sides would still need to negotiate a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Tensions worsened as US forces targeted missile and drone launch sites in Iran that they said were responsible for attacking three American warships transiting the strait on Thursday evening. No vessels were hit, US Central Command said. The ceasefire remains in effect, Trump said after the exchanges of fire.

The US carried out more airstrikes on empty oil tankers trying to break the blockade on Friday, Fox reported, citing an unnamed senior US official.

Trump is under plenty of pressure to end the war, with Americans increasingly against it and frustrated by the surge in fuel prices.

Iran criticised the US on Friday and said it had violated their ceasefire agreement. It added that a cargo vessel was hit in the overnight fighting, injuring 10 sailors. It didn’t specify if it was an Iranian ship, but said the injured seafarers were taken to hospitals in the Islamic Republic.

The skirmishes highlight “the confusion and inability of the ruling authorities in the United States to properly understand the situation and find a reasonable solution to exit their self-created impasse,” Iran’s foreign ministry said on X.

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The United Arab Emirates said Iran fired two ballistic missiles and three drones at it on Friday, causing three moderate injuries. The UAE was also targeted on Monday by Iran, which was reacting then to a US operation, dubbed Project Freedom, to help stranded commercial ships exit the Persian Gulf.

Iran warned ships not to go through Hormuz without its permission and attacked some US naval vessels, which weren’t hit. Even so, Trump cancelled Project Freedom the next day.

Separately, Iran said it seized a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which appeared to be a sanctioned vessel carrying the Islamic Republic’s own oil. It didn’t explain why, but said the tanker Ocean Koi was “attempting to disrupt oil exports and the interests of the Iranian nation.”

Trump has threatened more intense strikes if Iran refuses his terms, raising the risk of a longer war that has already hit the global economy.

“Just like we knocked them out again today, we’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their Deal signed, FAST,” Trump said in a social media post on Thursday evening.

Brent crude-oil futures rose slightly to around US$100 a barrel. They’ve fallen 7 per cent this week, with some traders optimistic Iran will accept Trump’s latest plan.

Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically flows, after the war erupted with US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic in late February. 

The US “does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces,” Centcom said. It added that three ships — the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason — had transited Hormuz and reached the Gulf of Oman safely. BLOOMBERG