Main Points
- US president Donald Trump warned Iran that its forces will be “blown off the face of the earth” if they attempt to target US vessels guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday
- Iran’s army commander in chief, Maj Gen Amir Hatami, warned any attempt by US aircraft carriers to approach the Strait of Hormuz would be met with force
- Iran also fired projectiles at the United Arab Emirates and Oman after the US military launched Project Freedom to ensure ships could again pass through the strait
- Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said events in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday made it clear “that there’s no military solution to a political crisis”
- Oil prices fell back 1 per cent over night having risen by around 6 per cent on Monday after the UAE and South Korea reported strikes on ships in the Strait of Hormuzl on Monday. This brought oil prices to $113.22 per barrel
- Global oil prices are around 50 per cent higher since the US and Israel attacked Iran
- The US and Iran announced a ceasefire in early April
- This saw Iran end drone and missile strikes on Gulf countries but shipping through the strait has not recovered
Key Reads
Hugh Dooley – 5 minutes ago
Maersk says shipping vessel transited Strait under US protection
A vessel belonging to Danish shipping giant Maersk has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz under escort from US naval assets, the company said.
Maersk said it was “offered the opportunity” for the US Alliance Fairfax shipping vessel to leave the gulf in which it was been stuck since the war began in late February.
“The vessel subsequently exited the Persian Gulf accompanied by U.S. military assets” the company said in a statement to CBS News.
“The transit was completed without incident, and all crew members are safe and unharmed.”
A similar cargo ship carrying containers from the Danish company Maersk photographed sailing through the Panama Canal. Photograph: MARTIN BERNETTI, AFP via Getty Images 
A cargo ship carrying containers from the Danish company Maersk sails into the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal in Panama City on April 21, 2026. According to the Panama Canal Authority, transit through the canal has increased due to the war in the Middle East. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP via Getty Images)
Hugh Dooley – 35 minutes ago
India condemns ‘unacceptable’ attack on UAE that injured Indian citizens
India’s ministry of external affairs said the attack on Fujairah in the UAE – which injured three Indian nationals – was “unacceptable” and called for an immediate end to the “targeting of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians”.
Officials in Fujairah said yesterday that a fire broke out at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone following what they described as a drone attack originating from Iran.
Civil defence teams were deployed immediately to contain the blaze, Fujairah Media office said in a statement. – Guardian
Hugh Dooley – 57 minutes ago
South Korea to ‘review position’ on joining US Hormuz operation
The South Korean defence ministry said the country will “review its position” on joining the US operations in the Strait of Hormuz after an explosion hit a South Korean cargo vessel on Monday.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that all 24 crew members aboard the stricken HMM Namu — including six South Korean nationals — were unharmed and the fire on the vessel had been “completely extinguished”, CBS News has reported.
US president Donald Trump called on the South Korean government to join in his efforts in the middle east following the attack, claiming the Asian country is reliant on fuel from the region.
South Korea ministry of defence said it would “carefully review our position”, noting its considerations would include an analysis of international law and its alliance with the United States, among other factors.
It added that it had been “actively participating in international discussions on cooperation to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Status quo at Strait of Hormuz is ‘unsustainable’ for the US says Iran
The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf has claimed the continuation of the ‘status quo’ at the Strait of Hormuz is ‘unsustainable’ for the US.
The US central command has said more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft, F-16 fighter aircraft, are in the region attempting to are “protect US forces and defend commercial shipping”.
Ghalibaf said, in a statement on X, that the security of the vital shipping lane has been jeopardized by the US and its allies. The imposition of the blockade on Iranian shores, Tehran said, is a violation of the ceasefire.
“A new equation” is being established in the region, the speaker of the Iranian parliament said.
U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft are among more than 100 land and sea-based aircraft supporting Project Freedom. During the defensive operation, these advanced warfighting platforms are helping to protect U.S. forces and defend commercial shipping. pic.twitter.com/7boqPZ1rSZ
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 5, 2026
Shares falter and oil prices retreat
Stocks fell in Asia on Tuesday while oil prices retreated after the previous day’s surge but remained well above $100 a barrel, as the US and Iran traded blows over the Strait of Hormuz, leaving a fragile truce hanging in the balance.
Traders also had their eyes on the yen after the Japanese currency briefly jumped in the previous session, stoking speculation of another round of intervention from Tokyo. Eurostoxx 50 futures were down 0.3 per cent and FTSE futures shed 1 per cent, while DAX futures lost 0.4 per cent.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.6 per cent in thin trade, with markets in Japan and South Korea closed for a holiday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost more than 1 per cent while China’s CSI300 blue-chip index was little changed.
In oil markets, Brent crude futures fell 1.3 per cent to $112.93 a barrel while U.S. crude slid 2.3 per cent to $104 per barrel, having both jumped in the previous session on heightened worries about supply disruption.
Hugh Dooley – 2 hours ago
Missile strikes reported in Oman, Dubai
Violence flared anew in and around the Persian Gulf on Monday, as the United Arab Emirates said Iran had fired missiles and drones at its territory and the US military said it sank several Iranian military boats.
UAE authorities blamed Iran for attacks on a major oil port and an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, in the first such attacks since the truce began four weeks ago. Oman also reported an attack that injured two people in the coastal town of Bukha, near UAE territory.
Loud explosions shook the UAE city of Dubai as air defence missiles detonated high overhead. US Central Command said it had shot down Iranian missiles and drones aimed at ships and around the strait.
An Emirati patrol boat is seen near a tanker anchored in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz. Photograph: Fatima Shbair/AP
Iran did not officially confirm or deny that it had resumed attacks , and a senior military official denied on state media that its boats had been sunk.
Iran has frequently targeted energy infrastructure in Gulf countries that host US military bases since Israel and the United States attacked in late February, beginning the war.
At least three Indian citizens were injured when an Iranian drone struck an oil industrial zone in Fujairah, a UAE port in the southern end of the Strait of Hormuz, local authorities said. Oman, without assigning blame, said a residential building near the strait had been struck, with two people injured.
No casualties were reported in the attack on a UAE oil tanker.
Hugh Dooley – 2 hours ago
South Korea to investigate explosion on ship
Seoul said that authorities will investigate the cause of an explosion and fire on a South Korean-operated ship in the Strait of Hormuz in an incident US president Donald Trump blamed on an Iranian attack.
“The exact cause of the accident would be figured out after the vessel is towed and its damage is assessed,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Panama-flagged cargo ship operated by South Korean shipper HMM was empty and at anchor when the explosion and fire occurred on Monday.
The ministry said there were no casualties and the fire in the engine room had been extinguished. The ship, named HMM Namu, would be towed to a nearby port so that the damage could be assessed and repairs carried out, the ministry said.
An HMM spokesperson said the 24 crew remained on board the 35,000-ton vessel.
In a post on the Truth Social platform, Trump said Iran had fired shots at the ship and other targets as the US launched an operation seeking to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.
He suggested it could be time for South Korea to join his new effort to help guide stranded ships through the waterway.
Hugh Dooley – 2 hours ago
Trump threatens to blow Iranian forces ‘off the face of the earth’
US president Donald Trump. Photograph: Allison Robbert/The New York Times
Donald Trump has threatened that Iran‘s armed forces will be “blown off the face of the earth” if they attack US vessels trying to reopen a route through the Strait of Hormuz.
The US launched an operation on Monday to help hundreds of ships trapped with their crews in the Gulf, dragging the region back to the brink of full-scale war.
Tehran sought to reassert its blockade on the strait, which is a vital waterway in global trade. While the US military claimed to have destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted both Iranian cruise missiles and drones, this was denied by Iran.
Trump’s comments call into question the fragile, Pakistan-brokered ceasefire that halted hostilities last month, but failed to open up the strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of international oil supplies usually travel.
More than 800 ships and roughly 20,000 crew members remain stranded in the region.
Trump’s threats against Iran echo remarks he made in April, when he warned that a “whole civilization will die” if Tehran failed to comply with his demands – comments that drew widespread domestic and international backlash.