DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 A tenuous ceasefire appeared to be holding Saturday after the United States struck two Iranian oil tankers, while the country that hosts the U.S. Navy\u2019s regional headquarters said it arrested dozens of people it alleged were linked to Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n
Attacks Friday cast doubt on the tenuous month-old ceasefire that the United States has insisted is still in effect<\/a>. Washington is awaiting an Iranian response to its latest proposal for a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Tehran\u2019s disputed nuclear program.<\/p>\n The U.S. military said Friday that its forces had disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade of Iran\u2019s ports. Hours earlier, the military said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships and struck Iranian military facilities<\/a> in the strait.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the small Gulf island of Bahrain, the nation\u2019s Ministry of Interior said Saturday it had arrested 41 people it alleges are part of a group affiliated with Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard. It said investigations are ongoing to take further action against anyone affiliated with the group but did not provide further details.<\/p>\n Bahrain is led by a Sunni Muslim monarchy but, like Iran, its population is majority Shiite. Rights groups have said that the kingdom has used the war between Iran and the U.S., which bases its Fifth Fleet in the country, as an excuse to crack down on dissent at home.<\/p>\n US says it responded to an attack in the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling world markets<\/a>. The U.S. has imposed its own blockade of Iran\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n The U.S. military posted video of the two Iranian tankers as their smokestacks were struck by an American fighter jet on Friday. Earlier in the week, an American military jet shot out the rudder of a tanker the U.S. military said was attempting to breach its blockade.<\/p>\n A U.S. strike overnight killed at least one sailor and injured 10 others aboard a cargo vessel that caught fire, a news agency affiliated with Iran\u2019s judiciary reported. It was not clear if the ship was one of the two tankers the U.S. acknowledged striking.<\/p>\n Despite the attacks, U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> has insisted the ceasefire is holding. He also has reiterated threats<\/a> to resume full-scale bombing if Iran doesn\u2019t accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program.<\/p>\n On Friday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the country was not paying attention to \u201cdeadlines\u201d and Tehran continues reviewing a U.S. proposal related to ongoing negotiations, according to state-run IRNA.<\/p>\n A top Iranian official also said Friday that the country\u2019s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was in \u201ccomplete health\u201d and that he would eventually appear in public. <\/p>\n The comments were made by Mazaher Hosseini, who is affiliated with the office of Iran\u2019s former Supreme Leader, at a pro-government gathering. Hosseini said Mojtaba had suffered knee and back injuries but that they\u2019ve largely healed and he\u2019s now in good condition. <\/p>\n Khamenei hasn\u2019t been seen in public since the war began and the continued absence of verified images, audio, or video of him has fueled speculation about his status. Remarks such as Hosseini\u2019s are seen by some as attempts to counter doubts that he may no longer be alive. <\/p>\n Calls for calm <\/p>\n As tensions escalate there\u2019s been a flurry of diplomacy across the globe. <\/p>\n Russia\u2019s foreign ministry said Saturday that it, as well as Saudi Arabia, is calling for continued diplomatic efforts to reach a \u201csustainable, long-term agreement\u201d to end the war, according to Russia\u2019s foreign ministry. <\/p>\n Egyptian and Qatari top diplomats have also have reiterated that diplomacy is the sole path to finding a solution, according to a readout of a Saturday phone call between Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. <\/p>\n Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has been in contact with the U.S. and Iran \u201cday and night\u201d in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014<\/p>\n Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 A tenuous ceasefire appeared to be holding Saturday after the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12881,270,328,38,15655,6433,197,1829,34,61,196,768,3352,6753,463,16816,1527,200,771,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-105179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-badr-abdelatty","9":"tag-bahrain","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-egypt-government","13":"tag-esmail-baghaei","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-international-agreements","16":"tag-iran","17":"tag-iran-government","18":"tag-iran-war","19":"tag-military-and-defense","20":"tag-mohammed-bin-rashid-al-maktoum","21":"tag-qatar-government","22":"tag-religion","23":"tag-shehbaz-sharif","24":"tag-u-s-navy","25":"tag-war-and-unrest","26":"tag-washington-news","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116544602371736577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}