{"id":521708,"date":"2026-07-12T01:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521708\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T01:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:52:12","slug":"iran-declares-strait-of-hormuz-closed-as-us-launches-new-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521708\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran declares Strait of Hormuz closed as US launches new strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iran said it considers the Strait of Hormuz closed once again after a vessel using an “unauthorised route” was struck by a warning shot in the critical waterway, further jeopardising the already tenuous ceasefire agreement<\/a> with the United States.<\/p>\n

US Central Command said a short time later that its forces began a third round of strikes against Iran. There were explosions in Bandar Abbas and Sirik, two towns along the shores of the strait, Iran state media reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran\u2019s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait,\u201d the military said.<\/p>\n

A Cyprus-flagged container ship struck by Iran suffered \u201csignificant engineroom damage\u201d and a civilian crew member is missing, US Central Command said.<\/p>\n

\"mourners<\/p>\n

mourners chant and raise their fists during the final funeral ceremony for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Senior US officials had previously said in Washington that negotiations to further cement last month’s deal to end the war will be unable to progress without the strait being secure \u2014 and had even said they expected Iran to offer public statements<\/a> to that effect.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Revolutionary Guards Corps said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.\u201d One of them \u201cwas struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran said that the strait would remain closed \u201cuntil further notice\u201d and said it would consider targeting \u201cadditional enemy bases in the region\u201d if it faced more attacks.<\/p>\n

A little more than an hour later, the US announced its own new round of strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran made a poor choice. Now they pay,\u201d Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media.<\/p>\n

Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait<\/p>\n

The latest flurry of shots from both sides followed Iran and Oman\u2019s foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait that lies between them, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war\u2019s opening strikes on February 28.<\/p>\n

Such revenge \u201cis the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out”, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television, hours after US President Donald Trump threatened more missile attacks.<\/p>\n

Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz \u201cat the technical and political levels”.<\/p>\n

Iran accuses Washington of violating ceasefire deal<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he met with his counterpart in Oman to discuss \u201cappropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships”.<\/p>\n

The world for decades has considered the strait an international waterway. Iran has insisted that the strait now remain under its control and that it be allowed to charge ships moving through it, a stance it took after the war began. The US urges mariners to transit on a southern route through Oman\u2019s territorial waters.<\/p>\n

About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran\u2019s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of US$120 a barrel.<\/p>\n

Iran’s top diplomat also accused the US of violating the interim deal by ending waivers allowing Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars. Washington ended them in response to the attacks on ships in the strait.<\/p>\n

\u201cReality check: There can only be mutual compliance,\u201d Araghchi wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A man holds a poster of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a gathering commemorating him at a square in Tehran. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Trump says he responded to threats to kill him<\/p>\n

A thousand \u201cmissiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat,\u201d Trump wrote on social media overnight<\/a><\/p>\n

He said he was responding to threats \u201cto assassinate, or attempt to assassinate\u201d him. During Khamenei’s funeral, mourners held posters or banners calling for Trump to be killed along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Trump has declared the ceasefire over but said the US would continue negotiations.<\/p>\n

US officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes in recent days came after what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners tried to sabotage the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.<\/p>\n

After the US wrapped up its latest strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

Israel didn’t claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for US strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.<\/p>\n

The strikes in Iran over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran said it considers the Strait of Hormuz closed once again after a vessel using an “unauthorised route”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39,66],"class_list":["post-521708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}