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A cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz has reported being attacked by multiple small craft, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said Sunday, marking at least two dozen attacks in and around the strait since the Iran war began.
All crew on the unidentified northbound carrier were safe after the attack off Sirik, Iran, east of the strait, the monitor said. Iranian officials have asserted that they control the strait and that ships not affiliated with the United States or Israel can pass if they pay a toll.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the monitor said. It’s the first reported in the area since April 22, when three cargo ships were attacked in the strait, with Iran seizing two of them.
Iranian patrol boats, some powered only by twin outboard motors, are small, nimble and hard to detect and have attacked several ships. U.S. President Donald Trump last month ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the strait.
The fragile three-week ceasefire appears to be holding, though Trump on Saturday told journalists that further strikes remained a possibility.
Iran makes new proposal to U.S. seeking to end the war
Iran’s latest proposal to the United States wants issues between them to be resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire, according to Iran’s state-linked media.
Trump on Saturday said he was reviewing the proposal but expressed doubt it would lead to a deal, saying on social media that “they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years” since the Islamic Revolution there.
Iran’s 14-point proposal also calls for the U.S. lifting sanctions on Iran, ending the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdrawing forces from the region and ceasing all hostilities, including Israel’s operations in Lebanon, according to the semi-official Nour News and Tasnim agencies, which have close ties to Iran’s security organizations.
There was no mention in those reports, however, of Iran’s nuclear program and its enriched uranium, long the central issue in tensions with the U.S. and one that Tehran would rather address later.
WATCH | How the Strait of Hormuz shutdown caused history’s biggest oil crisis:
How Strait of Hormuz shutdown caused history’s biggest oil crisis
The effective shutdown of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has caused the ‘biggest energy security threat in history,’ says Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. Ryan Cummings of the Stanford Institute for Economy Policymaking says the closure so far is the equivalent of a billion barrels of oil missing from the economy.
Iran sent its reply via Pakistan, which hosted face-to-face talks last month between Iran and the United States.
Pakistan’s prime minister, foreign minister and army chief continue to encourage the U.S. and Iran to speak directly, according to two officials in Pakistan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Also on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who oversaw previous rounds of talks before the war.