{"id":25130,"date":"2026-05-06T05:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/25130\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T05:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:33:35","slug":"middle-east-ceasefire-shattered-as-iran-strikes-uae-and-warns-were-just-getting-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/25130\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East ceasefire shattered as Iran strikes UAE and warns \u2018we\u2019re just getting started\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The fragile ceasefire in the Middle East was at risk of complete collapse on Tuesday after attacks on the UAE and exchanges of fire in the Gulf. <\/a><\/p>\n

US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth insisted the truce was \u201cnot over\u201d, despite the latest drone and missile strikes against the United Arab Emirates and clashes in key shipping route the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

But Tehran warned \u201cwe are just getting started\u201d, amid fears that the United States is unable to resolve the conflict it began<\/a> alongside Israel more than two months ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very proud … [but] they should wave the white flag of surrender,\u201d Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, playing down Iran\u2019s attacks as \u201cgames\u201d and insisting that the US has \u201ctotal control\u201d of the situation.<\/p>\n

Marco Rubio warned in a press conference on Tuesday that Iran is \u201cholding the whole world hostage\u201d in the Strait, with the secretary of state adding the US would respond to any attacks from Tehran with \u201clethal efficiency\u201d.<\/p>\n

The escalating tensions come after Mr Trump launched \u201cProject Freedom\u201d\u00a0on Monday, an effort to guide \u201cinnocent bystander\u201d ships through Hormuz<\/a> despite Iran claiming control of the waterway. <\/p>\n

\"USSUSS George HW Bush in the Arabian Sea as the US Navy enforces the blockade against Iran (US Central Command)<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who previously led Tehran through talks with Washington, said the US was endangering shipping through the strait with what Tehran has dubbed \u201cProject Deadlock\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America, while we have not even begun yet,\u201d Mr Ghalibaf wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Iran\u2019s recent attacks <\/a>and joined calls for de-escalation, urging Tehran to engage \u201cmeaningfully\u201d in talks to ensure the ceasefire endures.<\/p>\n

In a briefing on the war to reporters, Mr Hegseth attempted to frame Monday\u2019s clashes in the strait as natural \u201cchurn\u201d, while warning that the US still has the capability to reopen the wider conflict if needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe option is always there, and Iran knows that. And that\u2019s why their choices in Project Freedom are important,\u201d he said, casting the mission as a \u201cgift\u201d to the rest of the world while also downplaying the US\u2019s need for the waterway.<\/p>\n

The defence secretary said the operation would only be temporary and that other nations would soon have to \u201cstep up\u201d and take responsibility for the strait themselves, amid a widening rift with Nato allies over their perceived lack of support for Mr Trump\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

\"VesselsVessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on Monday (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Mr Hegseth\u2019s comments came just days after a deadline passed requiring the administration to seek congressional approval to continue the war. He said the 60-day limit did not apply as \u201cwith the ceasefire, the clock stops\u201d.<\/p>\n

General Dan \u201cRazin\u201d Caine, the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that Iran had fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships since the ceasefire agreement came into force last month.<\/p>\n

More than 100 American aircraft remain in the air 24 hours a day to provide defensive overwatch, he added, representing a fraction of some 15,000 service personnel involved in operations in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommercial vessels will see, hear and frankly feel American combat power around them, in the sea, in the skies and on the radio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gen Caine said the operation would require \u201cpatience and engagement\u201d, after demonstrating on Monday that the US could enter the Strait of Hormuz and guide ships. <\/p>\n

He said the US military remained ready to resume major combat operations against Iran if ordered to do so.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump addressed the Iran crisis at the Oval Office on Tuesday (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Dr Martin Navias, senior visiting research fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies at King\u2019s College London, told The Independent that Iran had been \u201creckless\u201d in its attacks but lacked the military capability to compel the United States to back down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans have upped the ante here, and there is the danger that even these limited actions will prompt an Iranian response that will demand an American counter-response. But … the United States does not appear to have made the decision to force [the Strait of Hormuz] open yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States has the force to force the strait open, but that will require a major escalation, and that escalation will not be limited to the Gulf. It will have to be part of a broader resumption of strikes on Iran. And it doesn\u2019t appear that the Trump administration has reached that point yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nitya Labh, a fellow on the International Security Programme at London\u2019s Chatham House, said the United States\u2019 push to assist global shipping in the region is \u201cextremely risky\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"USUS defence secretary Pete Hegseth insisted the ceasefire was not over yet (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s happening is quite escalatory; it suggests the US isn\u2019t willing to negotiate over the terms of reopening the strait,\u201d she told the BBC. \u201cThe US has accepted that the only way to continue to move shipping is under the threat of force or strikes from Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs warned that Britain is the country that is \u201cmost exposed\u201d to jet fuel shortages caused by the Iran war, raising fears of more cancelled flights and ruined summer holidays.<\/p>\n

The UK is highly reliant on imports that come through the closed Strait of Hormuz <\/a>and has \u201ccritically low levels\u201d of supplies and poor refining tools, analysts at one of the world\u2019s largest investment banks said.<\/p>\n

Responding to Monday\u2019s attacks, the UAE restricted flights to a handful of approved routes until at least 11 May and activated emergency security protocols, two days after lifting all precautionary airspace measures and saying its airspace was clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8,10863,9,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-25130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-horizontal","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116526003216232876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}