Trade ships hit as Iran recloses Strait of Hormuz

LONDON: Commercial ships came under fire and threats from Iran's military as they tried to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, security monitors said, as Iran closed the crucial trade route again following a brief reopening.
Iran reversed its pledge to reopen the strait to commercial traffic during a ceasefire in the Middle East war in protest at an ongoing US counter-blockade of the route, a crucial passage for commodity shipments.
A UK maritime security agency said Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) fired at a tanker, while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported the force threatened to 'destroy' an empty cruise ship that was fleeing the Gulf after Tehran on Friday announced a brief respite.
A handful of oil and gas tankers crossed the strait early on Saturday during the brief reopening, tracking data showed, but others retreated and tracking platforms showed hardly any vessels crossing the waterway by the late afternoon.
IRGC gunboats fired on the tanker in the strait northeast of Oman, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said in an online statement, adding the vessel and crew were safe. Vanguard identified the tanker as the India-flagged tanker Sanmar Herald.
It cited the captain as saying two IRGC patrol boats approached it with no radio contact and 'shots were fired, resulting in damage to the bridge windows'.
Vanguard said separately that the Malta-flagged cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 reported a splash nearby while crossing near Oman, on the far side of the strait from Iran.
'The Master confirmed VHF (radio) traffic from IRGC units stating 'we are carrying out operation, we will fire and destroy you,' but no damage was reported, Vanguard said.
In a third incident, the UKMTO said that it also received a report of a container ship in the same area 'being hit by an unknown projectile which caused damage to some of the containers' but no fire.
SHIPS DASH THROUGH
Around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the strait in peacetime, but traffic came to a near-standstill after the war erupted on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
During the reopening, at least eight oil and gas tankers crossed the strait early on Saturday after the Iranian announcement on Friday afternoon, data from tracking firm Kpler indicated.
Tracking platform MarineTraffic showed several other crude oil tankers approached the strait but turned back near Iran's Larak Island, a checkpoint for vessels seeking to exit the Gulf under the Iranian blockade of the passage.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Iran not to 'blackmail' Washington with its flip-flopping on the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran declared the strategic waterway once again closed.
'We're talking to them. They wanted to close up the strait again — you know, as they've been doing for years — and they can't blackmail us,' Trump said at a White House event.
Meanwhile, no date has been set for the next round of Iran-US peace talks brokered by Pakistan following the failure of an initial round, Iran's deputy foreign minister said on Saturday.
'Until we agree on the framework, we cannot set a date,' Saeed Khatibzadeh told journalists on the sidelines of an annual diplomatic forum in Türkiye's southern Antalya province. 'We do not want to enter into any negotiation or meeting that is destined to fail and could serve as a pretext for another round of escalation,' he said.
In Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Saturday that French United Nations peacekeepers had been attacked in southern Lebanon, ordering an investigation into the incident. 'I condemn in the strongest terms today's attack on members of the French battalion in UNIFIL,' Salam said, referring to the peacekeepers. — AFP