USA and Iran on escalation course

Location at a glance

Ceasefire at risk: USA and Iran on course for escalation

Tensions are rising again: The USA wants to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is blocked by Iran, to shipping traffic. Iran responds by shelling oil facilities in the UAE.

The dispute over the blocked Strait of Hormuz threatens the ceasefire between the USA and Iran. US President Donald Trump again threatened the Islamic Republic with destruction after Iran attacked and set fire to oil facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in response to a US initiative to open the strait. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in turn, warned the USA against continuing its initiative. Chancellor Friedrich Merz meanwhile called on Tehran to return to the negotiating table.

US President Trump announced on Sunday the launch of an initiative called “Project Freedom” to give free passage to ships stuck because of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. According to the responsible US regional command (Centcom), destroyers entered the Persian Gulf through the strait on Monday. Two merchant ships flying the US flag were able to leave the sea area, it was said. In the course of the operation, the US military claims to have destroyed at least six speedboats belonging to the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards said they fired several missiles in the direction of US warships as a warning. In addition, Iran attacked oil facilities in the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, which caught fire. Fujairah is strategically important for the UAE: from this port the country can export its oil without tankers having to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

These were the first Iranian attacks on the Gulf state since the beginning of a ceasefire almost four weeks ago, which Trump had recently extended unilaterally for an indefinite period. Iranian forces described their attack as a response to the “adventurism of the US Army” and an “illegal passage of ships through forbidden routes of the Strait of Hormuz.”

Trump threatened Iran with destruction if it attacked US ships. Iran will be “wiped off the face of the earth” if it attacks ships operating as part of the new US initiative to open the Strait of Hormuz, Fox News quoted him as saying. Trump did not want to comment on whether the ceasefire with Tehran was over. “Well, I can’t tell you,” he said on an episode of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” podcast.