Iran Strikes Ships in the Strait of Hormuz as the US-Iran Truce Expires

Iran's military fired at least two missiles at commercial ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night, according to two US officials cited by Axios, ending a lull in the waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world's traded oil. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that a tanker was struck on its port side about 8 nautical miles east of Limah, Oman, and caught fire. A US official said a second vessel was hit by an Iranian missile. Both ships suffered significant damage, and no casualties were reported.

The strikes came within hours of the expiry of a one-week agreement to halt attacks in the strait, part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Presidents Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian signed electronically on June 17 to wind down the war that began in February. Bloomberg, citing the Axios account, reported that the resumed attacks threaten the MOU, which was signed less than three weeks ago. Indirect US-Iran talks in Doha ended last week without agreement on the strait's status, and one US official said Washington is likely to respond with strikes on Iranian targets, though another had earlier signaled that negotiations could continue.

Iranian officials have not framed the actions as a violation. Tehran maintains that the Strait of Hormuz is governed by Iran and that vessels must use its approved routes or face what the joint military command has called a "forceful response," describing its enforcement as ceasefire management rather than a breach. The dispute centers on competing readings of the MOU, including a provision Al Jazeera reported as Article 5, which each side interprets differently. Brent crude traded near $72 a barrel before the strikes, close to its lowest level since late February and down sharply from above $100 in March, a decline built on the assumption that the war was ending.