Drone strikes ship on southern Hormuz route, Fars reports
Iran's deadline for a US response on reopening the strait passed Tuesday without an answer.
Published
Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
A ship was struck by a drone along the southern Hormuz shipping route, Iran's Fars news agency reported Tuesday.
Tehran's deadline for Washington to reply on reopening the Strait of Hormuz passed Tuesday without an answer. UK Maritime Trade Operations had already logged a late report of a Hormuz incident following two blasts heard this week off Iran's Qeshm Island, neither confirmed to have caused damage. Iran's state TV had said the earlier sounds were likely warning shots fired at vessels violating the strait.
Iran's Foreign Minister Araghchi said Tehran also expects a response on nuclear talks through Qatari mediators by Tuesday, and that Washington must want peace or a deal. He repeated that the Supreme Leader's terms must be met before the Strait of Hormuz reopens. Total's chief executive has put oil flow through the strait at about 10 million barrels a day, a lower figure than one cited by a US official.
The strike lands amid a standoff in which tanker traffic has held up: roughly 60 vessels and record crude volumes moved through the strait as of late September, even as talks stalled over sequencing. Unlike the ambiguous blasts and warning-shot explanations Iran has offered near Qeshm, this is a direct attack rather than routine enforcement, pointing to firmer escalation than the pattern of unconfirmed noises markets had learned to discount. With Washington voicing no urgency to settle and Iran declining to discuss its nuclear file before its Hormuz conditions are met, there is little diplomatic cushion left to absorb a fresh strike on shipping. That combination pushes the picture further into bearish territory for crude, adding to the risk premium rather than merely reinforcing it.