US reinforces forces near Strait of Hormuz after Trump rejects Iran ceasefire offer
The deployment follows a tanker strike in the strait that Iran blames on UAE-linked vessels, and comes days after mediators said a transit-for-blockade deal was gaining ground.
Published
Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
The United States is sending additional forces near the Strait of Hormuz after President Trump rejected Iran's latest offer of a seven-day ceasefire. The move is meant to strengthen American capabilities around the waterway, through which much of the world's oil shipments pass.
The reinforcement comes shortly after the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported a tanker struck by an unknown projectile in the strait, which then caught fire. Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation said several tankers have been hit in the strait, with the last three tied to UAE ownership. Iranian officials cited by Press TV have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of plotting a false-flag hijacking to pin blame on Iran.
The rejected ceasefire offer came against the backdrop of a wider diplomatic track that had shown signs of movement. Qatar had floated a new proposal to break the US-Iran deadlock after Iran's own deadline for a US reply passed unanswered, and Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi briefed the Iranian president on a US proposal, according to state news agency IRNA. Iran had also offered to allow nuclear inspectors into the country if sanctions were eased, though Iranian officials later denied that nuclear talks had taken place in mediator meetings. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Trump told aides privately he expects to resume bombing Iran by the end of November.
The deployment marks a return to the unilateral military posture that has repeatedly undercut diplomatic openings in this standoff, including Washington's earlier rejection of an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait and the mediator-led progress reported only days before. Reinforcing forces there after walking away from a ceasefire offer suggests Washington is again leaning on presence rather than negotiation, a pattern that has stalled talks without producing a lasting reopening of the strait. With tanker strikes tied to UAE ownership reported just before this deployment, the added US capability raises the odds of direct confrontation rather than the free-transit-for-eased-blockade terms mediators had been floating.