U.S. strikes Iranian military sites after ship was hit in Strait of Hormuz

U.S. forces launched airstrikes against Iranian missile and drone storage locations Friday in what Central Command called a “powerful response” to “unwarranted aggression” by Iran with its Thursday attack on a commercial ship exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The strikes came after President Donald Trump accused Iran of violating a ceasefire that was solidified in a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries last week.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had thwarted the U.S. “counterattack” on Sirik Island, near the strait, forcing a U.S. retreat, according to a statement posted on Telegram by the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency.

The “aggression will not go unanswered,” the IRGC said, warning that “any new foolishness will be met with a harsh response that will shatter the illusions of the attackers.”

The attacks and exchange of harsh words put the ceasefire on shaky ground and added to ongoing confusion as to the strength and details of the MOU.

Earlier in the day, Iran said it would not tolerate any transit through the strait undertaken without its approval.

“Safe passage … cannot be guaranteed by vague arrangements, parallel routes, or decision-making outside of Iran’s consideration as a coastal state,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a social media post published by state-aligned media. “Any credible framework must be based on coordination with Iran.”

As 60 days of technical negotiations on implementation of the broadly written agreement are said to be underway, each side has put its public spin on its terms and apparent violations.

“I don’t like the fact that they took a shot yesterday,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office just before news of the U.S. attack. “They shouldn’t be doing that. You’ll find out.”

But despite renewed hostilities in the strait, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a step forward Friday with a tripartite agreement among the U.S., Israel and Lebanon for Israeli withdrawal from two areas in southern Lebanon, following a fifth round of U.S.-led negotiations in Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “great achievement” that will allow Israel to continue most of its Lebanon occupation, while Iran-backed Hezbollah denounced it as Lebanese capitulation.

The MOU calls for the end of all “military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.”

The International Maritime Organization said it was pausing implementation of a separate agreement reached earlier this week under the MOU to allow safe transit along two routes – one in the north near the Iranian coast and another in the south along the coast of Oman – until the rules could be clarified and Iranian mines were cleared from a central route in the middle of the strait.

“We still have an investigation (underway) on exactly what happened to the vessel,” IMO Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez said in a press briefing.

Following meetings Monday with Iranian and Omani officials, he said, a process was set up for the IMO to coordinate the passage of some 500 ships that have remained stranded in the strait since the U.S.-Iran war began in late February.

The container vessel struck Thursday, the Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely, had not transited as part of what Dominguez called the “evacuation framework,” but had done its own risk assessment and apparently not contacted authorities in either Iran or Oman before traveling along the southern passage, he said.

According to Trump, Iran “shot at least four One Way Attack Drones at Ships transversing the Strait of Hormuz.” One, he said, “hit the upper deck of a large and very expensive Cargo Carrying Ship. … We knocked down three other Drones.”

No injuries were reported aboard the vessel, which continued its passage.

Dominguez said that at least 11 vessels had exited the strait Friday along the southern corridor and four along the northern route without IMO coordination. “I’m hoping that this is an isolated incident,” he said of the Thursday attack, “and we can then again reiterate those guarantees of the safety and the need for the flow of transit to continue in line with the MOU that was signed.”

Oil prices continued to fall Friday despite the Thursday incident.

Beyond the immediate provisions of the MOU – the opening of the strait and U.S. sanction waivers on the purchase of Iranian oil – technical teams from Tehran and Washington are to work out the details of a final agreement over the next two months, including the lifting of all sanctions and what is to be done about Iran’s nuclear program.

The memorandum says the final deal will “resolve the disposition … under the supervision” of the International Atomic Energy Agency, of more than 900 pounds of highly enriched, near-weapons-grade uranium buried under Iranian storage sites bombed last year by the U.S. and Israel. It says that the two sides will “discuss the issue of enrichment” under a “framework being agreed upon in the final Deal.”

Tehran has said it is entitled to low-level enrichment capability for civilian use, while Trump and other administration officials have said Iran can have no enrichment at all. Vice President JD Vance, the chief U.S. negotiator, has suggested there could be agreement on an enrichment moratorium for a period of time.

The U.S. has also said Iran has agreed to allow the IAEA to inspect the buried sites. Iran has said no agreement has yet been reached on that.

In a news conference Friday during a visit to Japan, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the agency must first verify the location and condition of all enriched uranium, but “we have barely initiated conversations with Iran” and no inspections have begun.

Grossi emphasized that while agreement on inspection modalities can be reached within 60 days, “implementation … will take more than 60 days. This is very important for everybody to realize,” he said.

Asked about contradictory U.S. and Iranian statements, Grossi noted that each has a “political position. … But in reality there is an agreement, and to comply with that agreement the IAEA will have to have access and inspect.”

As wrangling continued over the MOU, Israel and Iran continued to threaten each other.

In a statement Friday, Iran’s central military headquarters called on the U.S. to “restrain and control” Israel and warned against any Israeli aircraft movement through neighboring countries near Iran’s borders.

In a social media post in Persian, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz dismissed Iran’s “ridiculous threatening gestures” and said that if Iran attacks Israel, “it will make its biggest mistake. … Nothing will stop us. Our forces are ready to finish the job.”

Israel has made clear its disapproval of the MOU, and fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has threatened to undermine it. Iran has insisted that Israel withdraw from Lebanon and stop all attacks there, while Israel insists that Hezbollah attacks on communities in northern Israel can be stopped only with the destruction of the militant group that operates outside Lebanese government control.

Rubio, who hosted a State Department signing ceremony of the Israel-Lebanon agreement Friday, called it “the beginning of the beginning.”

“This first step sometimes is the hardest one, but it’s an important one … and hopefully we’ll have many more of these conversations and make real and tangible progress,” he said.

The agreement calls for the Lebanese military, which thus far has been unable to significantly confront Hezbollah, to take over two areas that have been occupied by the Israeli military.

In a recorded statement broadcast in Israel, Netanyahu said “the most important thing is that, first of all, Israel remains in the security zone in southern Lebanon. This is a great achievement, and we will maintain it as long as Hezbollah is not disarmed.”

“This is also a major blow to Iran,” Netanyahu said.