IRAN ASSERTS CONTROL OVER VITAL STRAIT In one separate development, Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement to end the fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Both sides said the deal was an initial step that calls for Hezbollah to disarm and Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, but it was not clear how it would be enforced. Hezbollah said it would not cooperate. Iranian state television said the country’s Revolutionary Guards had delivered “a decisive response” after US forces hit a communications tower in the
port city of Sirik. Iran’s Mehr news agency said the port was operating normally with no damage reported to facilities or equipment. Bahrain said Iran’s continued attacks, despite regional and international de-escalation efforts, were undermining peace and regional stability. It also accused Tehran of breaching UN Security Council Resolution 2817 and the Jun 17 Islamabad memorandum of understanding. After Thursday’s strike on a cargo ship off Oman’s coast, Iran did not acknowledge responsibility. Instead, it asserted its authority to regulate shipping through the Strait of
Hormuz, said vessels must comply with routes designated by Tehran, warned Gulf states against siding with Washington, and said the Iran-US interim agreement gave it control over ship traffic through the strategic waterway. Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said on Saturday that any violation of Iran’s shipping instructions through the strait would be met decisively. US Central Command condemned what it said was Iran’s Thursday strike as “unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping”, adding the US would continue to provide
“safe passage coordination and support” to commercial vessels transiting the strait – the conduit of one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supplies before the US and Israel launched the war on Feb 28.
Iran, Bahrain, Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command, Sirik, communications tower, drone attack, UN Security Council Resolution 2817, Jun 17 Islamabad memorandum, Hezbollah, Israel-Lebanon agreement