Cargo ship reportedly struck in Strait of Hormuz as Trump states US, Iran talks ongoing
WASHINGTON (TNND) — Another cargo ship has reportedly been hit by a projectile overnight off the Oman coast in the Strait of Hormuz, a British maritime monitoring agency said Tuesday.
The report comes as the United States and Iran both trade differing views about whether or not peace talks are continuing to end the war in Iran.
The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center said the cargo ship reported “being hit by an unknown projectile” at 2 a.m. local time at 37 kilometers (23 miles) northeast of Al Khasab in Oman.
The agency did not provide more information on the ship, such as what flag the boat was sailing under or if it was carrying cargo, though British maritime security firm Ambrey told The Associated Press that the ship did suffer damage.
The strait, and who is operating it, continues to be a contentious point in the Iran war, as the U.S. imposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the waterway and Iranian attacks have impeded shipping in the critical waterway.
On Monday, President Donald Trump said the two parties have resumed talks, while Iran shared that it was only discussing the Strait of Hormuz with Oman.
Whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking,” Trump said.
“Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier Monday. “They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg,’ talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with ‘Oman.’”
That is in contrast to Sunday, when Trump said a deal was nearing after he opted to call off “the biggest attack since World War II.”
“They think there’s a deal,” Trump told reporters. “There’s a deal on Hormuz, and then there will be a deal on the nuclear or you might call it the denuclearization of Iran.”
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis said they fired a drone toward an airport in Saudi Arabia.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, claimed the drone hit a “sensitive target” at an airport in Najran. Saree said the drone attack was in response to what he called “Saudi breaches of Yemen’s airspace.”
The Houthis recently announced they would be imposing a blockade on Saudi-linked shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which leads to the Red Sea.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.