US and Iran trade Hormuz control claims as attacks roil Middle East

Dubai,UPDATED: Jul 13, 2026 14:52 IST

The United States and Iran on Monday both asserted control over the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks across the wider Middle East, further straining efforts to revive diplomacy and end the war. The confrontation has sharpened focus on the strategic waterway, which remains central to negotiations and regional security.

The latest round of attacks began after Iran struck a container ship on Sunday in the strait off the coast of Oman. The exchanges have raised concerns that the war could return to full-scale fighting despite an interim 60-day deal meant to prepare the ground for talks on a permanent end to the conflict. “A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.

The US military’s Central Command said its forces struck dozens of targets in Iran on Monday, including air defence systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment, and small boats. “The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade,” Central Command said. “Iran does not control it.” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also called for the strait to remain open. “The Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, freedom of navigation has to be respected,” she said.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rejected the US position. “The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it,” the Guard said. Missile alert sirens sounded three times in Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, while Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage in either country. Jordan’s military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that “resulted in zero casualties or material damage”.

Inside Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces, and state-run IRNA said at least two people were killed. Semi-official Iranian media also reported strikes in Sistan and Baluchestan province. Iranian attacks on Sunday had also stretched Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Oman, whose territorial waters with Iran make up the strait. Oman later summoned an Iranian diplomat to criticise the attack.

Separately, a base belonging to the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, came under drone attack on Monday. Rebaz Sharifi, commander of the Kurdistan Militia Corps, said the strikes targeted the group’s Chamshar base, without giving details about casualties or damage. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

The US military said early Sunday that it had hit about 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other locations, marking a heavier set of strikes than in the previous two rounds over the past week. US President Donald Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “We bombed the hell out of them last night.”

Iran then retaliated by attacking countries in the region that host US military forces, while insisting that it alone must control the strait and could potentially charge vessels for passing through it. Iran said the strait was closed, while the US military and Trump said it remained open. Iran’s hold over the waterway has eased to some extent as the US military backed ships travelling along a southern route close to Oman’s coastline, though Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels using that route.

Iran’s grip on the strait had triggered a global energy crisis, although oil prices have fallen sharply from wartime highs of USD 120 a barrel. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the turmoil. “Considering the memorandum of understanding’s fourteen clauses, the Americans have, in this brief period, in one way or another, slaughtered its various components,” Baghaei told journalists on Monday. He also said Iran would not agree to visits by the Atomic Energy Agency to Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the US in 2025, where Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed to remain.

Diplomatic efforts continued alongside the fighting. Trump said last week that the interim deal in the war was “over”, but mediators including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt have kept trying to secure a final agreement. A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued on Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides. Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who had not been seen since the war began, said on Saturday in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing.

The latest attacks have left the Strait of Hormuz at the centre of the conflict, with both Washington and Tehran staking rival claims over the waterway even as mediators continue attempts to prevent the war from escalating further.

With PTI Inputs

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