Rubio dismisses UAE fears over Strait of Hormuz toll as \u2018semantics\u2019 despite threat to peace talksYour support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n
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Tehran has struck a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz as countries try to reopen the oil route. <\/p>\n
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards attacked a Singapore-flagged commercial vessel with a drone on Thursday, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News<\/a>. According to an advisory from the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre, the ship\u2019s bridge was damaged after it was struck on its starboard side off the coast of Dahit, Oman, though no casualties or environmental impacts were reported.<\/p>\n The attack poses an immediate challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to reopen the critical shipping corridor, which normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio<\/a> has dismissed concerns raised by the UAE over an Iranian toll on the Strait of Hormuz <\/a>as \u201csemantics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can call it a toll, you can call it a fee, at the end of the day it\u2019s all semantics,\u201d Rubio said during a visit to Bahrain, where he is meeting the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. <\/p>\n Washington has sought to reassure the region that no country, including Iran, will be allowed to charge tolls for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n <\/a>Trump revisits Iran school strike months after attack, says \u2018I don\u2019t think it was us\u2019<\/p>\n President Donald Trump said Wednesday that it may never be determined who was responsible for a deadly strike on a girls\u2019 school in Iran that killed scores of children on the first day of the Iran war, as questions continue over whether US forces were involved.<\/p>\n The 28 February strike in Minab, southern Iran, killed more than 175 children and teachers, according to Iranian officials, triggering international outrage and renewed scrutiny of the US military operation.<\/p>\n Trump, speaking to reporters, said the circumstances surrounding the attack may never be fully resolved.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that they are ever going to solve that problem,\u201d Trump said, referring to questions over responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that they are ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it because there were missiles flying all over the place, and it\u2019s horrible what happened but there were missiles flying all over the place,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Trump said he had not seen evidence proving the strike was carried out by US forces.<\/p>\n Arpan Rai26 June 2026 06:03<\/p>\n <\/a>Watch: Rubio dismisses UAE fears over Strait of Hormuz toll as \u2018semantics\u2019 despite threat to peace talksRubio dismisses UAE fears over Strait of Hormuz toll as \u2018semantics\u2019 despite threat to peace talks<\/p>\n Arpan Rai26 June 2026 05:38<\/p>\n <\/a>Israeli troops fatally shoot a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank<\/p>\n Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man inside his home in the occupied West Bank, a relative said on Thursday.<\/p>\n The Israeli military confirmed the shooting and said the man had thrown objects at the soldiers.<\/p>\n Mustafa Al-Khatib, 32, was found dead in his bedroom in the West Bank village of Sarta, about 32 kilometres (20 miles) north of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n Soldiers had broken through the front door, according to Al-Khatib’s cousin, Amin Al-Khatib.<\/p>\n \u201cI entered the house. They had broken the door,\u201d Amin said. \u201cHe was lying in his bedroom. … We found him on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n The Israeli military said it was operating in the area when a man started to throw objects at the soldiers. It said troops fired warning shots before aiming at the man.<\/p>\n Video footage from inside the house showed ransacked cupboards and bloodstains on the floor.<\/p>\n The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said in a statement that Al-Khatib’s death brought the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank to 72 since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n Arpan Rai26 June 2026 05:10<\/p>\n <\/a>Rubio tells Gulf allies Iran deal will ensure their security and promises access to Hormuz<\/p>\n US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Gulf allies on Thursday that any deal with Iran would take their interests into account, as he wrapped up a Middle East trip aimed at winning over regional partners with deep reservations about the preliminary accord.<\/p>\n Speaking at a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Rubio said Washington was seeking an enduring peace with long-time foe Iran that would not come at the expense of the security of allies in the oil-rich region, many of whom see the deal as too soft after coming under Iranian attack during the conflict.<\/p>\n Iran fought two of the world’s most powerful armies, the US and Israel, during the conflict and took effective control of the vital Strait of Hormuz, heavily disrupting oil flows and rattling global energy markets and the wider economy.<\/p>\n He told reporters that Gulf allies \u200bshared some \u2060very serious concerns and that they wanted to be informed of every step of the peace accord, which includes provisions on Hormuz. <\/p>\n In a joint statement later on Thursday, the US and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said a lasting peace would mean addressing Iran’s ballistic missiles, \u2060drones and support for proxy groups.<\/p>\n They also backed “free, unconditional, and unrestricted navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz without “any tolls, fees, or attempts to \u200bassert control.”<\/p>\n If Iran \u2060threatens or blocks ships in the strait, “then we’re going to \u200chave a problem,” Rubio said, having earlier told ministers that “no country on Earth has the right to charge for the use of international waterways” and that fees for shipping would never be part of any deal.<\/p>\n Arpan Rai26 June 2026 04:59<\/p>\n <\/a>Trump says US to buy farm goods with unfrozen Iranian assets<\/p>\n Donald \u2060Trump said on Thursday \u2060the \u200bUnited \u2060States \u2060would soon \u200bbuy \u2060wheat, \u200csoybeans and corn from \u200cAmerican farmers \u200cusing \u2060Iranian assets that have been frozen under US \u200csanctions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a new market coming up, and that’s called The Lovely Country of Iran. It’s a beautiful place. Would anybody like to go there? They’re having a hard time with food and we’re going to be taking some of their money and we’ll spend it and we’re going to be buying wheat, soybeans, and corn, a lot of it, and that process is going to be starting soon. It\u2019s going to be big,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Arpan Rai26 June 2026 04:30<\/p>\n <\/a>Eight more South Korean vessels exit Strait of Hormuz, ministry says<\/p>\n Eight more South Korean vessels have exited the Strait of Hormuz, South Korea’s Oceans Ministry said today.<\/p>\n A total \u2060of five \u200bSouth \u2060Korean-operated ships \u200cremained in the area, with 47 \u200ccrew members \u200con board as of \u20609am Seoul time on Friday, the ministry said.<\/p>\n The ministry declined to \u200cdisclose details \u200bon the \u200cvessels, citing \u2060requests from \u2060shippers and crew \u200cmembers.<\/p>\n Arpan Rai26 June 2026 04:28<\/p>\n <\/a>UN halts escort of ships through Hormuz after vessel comes under attack<\/p>\n The UN International Maritime Organization paused its operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday after a vessel reported an attack, reigniting concerns about whether a preliminary deal to end \u2060the Iran war would hold.<\/p>\n The IMO decided “to temporarily pause its implementation in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region”, secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.<\/p>\n It said the ship involved in the suspected attack was not part of its evacuation programme.<\/p>\n The cargo ship said it was hit close to Oman by a projectile, according to British naval agency UKMTO, hours after Tehran warned vessels against taking routes that it had not approved.<\/p>\n Two US officials told Reuters Iran had fired on the ship, while Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which Tehran established to manage requests for ships to travel through the strait, said vessels outside routes it had set would not be guaranteed safe passage.<\/p>\n \u201cConsequences arising from passage through unauthorized routes shall be the responsibility of the owner, operator, and vessel commander,” the Iranian authority \u2060said.<\/p>\n Arpan Rai26 June 2026 03:57<\/p>\n <\/a>Drone strike hits commercial vessel in Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards attacked a Singapore-flagged commercial vessel with a drone on Thursday, damaging the ship’s bridge off the coast of Oman, CBS News<\/a> reported. Though no casualties were reported, the strike directly challenges ongoing international efforts to reopen the critical shipping corridor. <\/p>\n In response, the United Nations\u2019 International Maritime Organization has temporarily paused its evacuation plan for stranded ships to reconfirm safety guarantees. The attack creates a sudden setback just a week after a U.S.-Iran agreement briefly boosted maritime traffic back toward normal levels.<\/p>\n Jasmine Fern\u00e1ndez26 June 2026 03:48<\/p>\n