{"id":535621,"date":"2026-07-11T02:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/535621\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T02:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T02:07:14","slug":"iran-tells-us-errant-forces-attacked-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz-official-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/535621\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran tells US \u2018errant\u2019 forces attacked ships in Strait of Hormuz, official says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States<\/a> is demanding that Iran publicly commit to ending attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, guarantee that all shipping lanes remain open and abandon any effort to charge vessels for passage, senior U.S. officials said Friday.<\/p>\n

The demand comes as Washington imposed a new round of sanctions targeting a financier allegedly linked to Iran\u2019s new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and a network of exchange houses and front companies accused of moving billions of dollars for sanctioned Iranian banks and the country\u2019s ruling elite.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>\"<\/p>\n

(Photo: Hamed Jafarnejad\/ISNA\/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS, AP\/Alex Brandon, REUTERS\/Stringer)<\/p>\n

Iran has refused to relinquish control over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply normally passes. U.S. officials nevertheless said recent contacts between Washington and Tehran<\/a> had been productive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re demanding is that the Iranians issue a public statement that acknowledges all channels of the Strait of Hormuz are open and they\u2019re not shooting at ships anymore,\u201d one senior official told a small group of reporters during a conference call.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re either going to give us that statement or we\u2019re not having a good outcome for them,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

According to another senior official, Iran told Washington that the recent attacks on commercial shipping were carried out by \u201can errant part of their system.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. officials said the explanation appeared to reflect a power struggle unfolding between Iranian hardliners and more pragmatic elements of the leadership.<\/p>\n

Three Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers came under fire during the past week, prompting the United States to strike Iranian sites. Tehran then responded by attacking U.S. military installations in Gulf states.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump declared that a ceasefire signed by the two countries in June was over, although Washington agreed to continue negotiations at Iran\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping to get to a place where they publicly say that they will stop shooting at ships and sort of explicitly, or at least implicitly, acknowledge that they screwed up,\u201d one official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president has directed us to talk, but as he\u2019s shown a willingness to do, if they keep on shooting at ships or they engage in any other hostile acts, then we\u2019re going to hit them back,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is expected to travel to Oman on Saturday for talks on bilateral relations and regional developments, particularly the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran\u2019s official IRNA news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Beyond the shipping dispute, U.S. officials said Washington\u2019s fundamental demand remained the transfer of Iran\u2019s nuclear material.<\/p>\n

Tehran is believed to possess more than 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which Trump and other U.S. officials have referred to as \u201cnuclear dust.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nuclear issue is supposed to be addressed during a 60-day negotiation period established under a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries in June.<\/p>\n

\"\u05e6\u05e0\u05d8\u05e8\u05d9\u05e4\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5\u05ea<\/a>\"\u05e6\u05e0\u05d8\u05e8\u05d9\u05e4\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5\u05ea<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be clear here that if we don\u2019t get the dust, we do not have a deal with Iran,\u201d one official said.<\/p>\n

The official said Washington had \u201ca lot of options\u201d if Iran refused, including both military and economic measures.<\/p>\n

Iran has said it is prepared for \u201call-out defense\u201d if the United States violates the memorandum. Its chief negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, wrote on Telegram that the conflict would never end with Tehran\u2019s surrender.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against Iranian banker and businessman Ali Ansari, who is based in Dubai, as well as 13 other individuals and entities.<\/p>\n

Britain had previously sanctioned Ansari over accusations that he financially supported Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian organizations.<\/p>\n

The Treasury said Ansari diverted publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial assets, enriching himself, Iranian government elites and the IRGC.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough held in Ansari\u2019s name, many of these financial interests are ultimately held for the financial benefit of Mojtaba Khamenei, his family and other Iranian elites in the regime and the IRGC,\u201d the Treasury said.<\/p>\n

The department accused those figures of protecting Ansari from punishment despite what it described as his corruption and the economic damage he caused Iran and its population.<\/p>\n

Ansari previously owned and directed Ayandeh Bank, which was sanctioned by the United States and later declared bankrupt. Iranian authorities ordered the bank closed in mid-October 2025.<\/p>\n

According to the Treasury, Ansari used shell companies and bank accounts across several jurisdictions to accumulate holdings worth millions of dollars under Smart Global Limited, a Saint Kitts and Nevis-based holding company established in 2011.<\/p>\n

\"\u05e1\u05d9\u05e8\u05ea<\/a>\"\u05e1\u05d9\u05e8\u05ea<\/p>\n

The company invested in real estate and commercial properties in Europe, the Gulf and other regions, the Treasury said.<\/p>\n

The Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control also sanctioned three Iran-based currency exchange houses and foreign companies accused of transferring billions of dollars each year on behalf of blacklisted Iranian banks.<\/p>\n

Officials said the network used layers of shell companies to conceal financial activity on behalf of the Iranian government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is taking decisive action to cut off the financial lifelines sustaining Iran\u2019s ruling elite,\u201d State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy targeting these networks, the United States is directly disrupting the regime\u2019s ability to access foreign currency and conduct international financial activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sanctions also targeted Iranian nationals associated with the exchange houses, Hong Kong-based CDM Trading Limited and Naba Alzaki Raw Materials Trading LLC in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department would \u201ccontinue using every tool at its disposal\u201d to isolate Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials from the international financial system.<\/p>\n

The sanctions could further complicate negotiations because Article 9 of the June U.S.-Iran memorandum states that Washington will not impose new sanctions or deploy additional forces in the region.<\/p>\n

Brett Erickson, managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, said the measures indicated that Washington was preparing for the possibility that the existing diplomatic framework would collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington is no longer trying to salvage the existing framework,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s preparing to replace it entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States is demanding that Iran publicly commit to ending attacks on ships in the Strait of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-535621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}