TEHRAN, Iran – Iran is asserting maritime control of the Strait of Hormuz following a renewed attack that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to slam Iranian leaders.
President Trump told reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara for a NATO summit that he believes the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed last month between Iran and the United States is over, calling Iranian authorities “sick” and “scum” after several ships were attacked by drones in the waterway.
U.S. forces struck southern Iran on Wednesday morning in what President Trump said was 20 times the attack by Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian military fired projectiles at Bahrain and Kuwait, shooting down a U.S. military drone.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of violating the provisions of the memorandum of understanding, which stipulates the suspension of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and part of the agreement on respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.
It also condemned the US Treasury’s move to revoke a waiver that allowed Iran to export crude oil and earn revenue for 60 days. This exemption and the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports were the only immediate and tangible material benefits of the memorandum for Iran.
A similar but smaller series of incidents occurred in late June, stemming from Iranian efforts to prevent tankers and commercial vessels from passing through the Strait of Hormuz along the U.S.-backed route near Oman. However, at this time, the United States did not withdraw the temporary sanctions waiver it had extended to Iran.
Different interpretations of Article 5
At the heart of the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz is a difference in the interpretation of Article 5 of the Memorandum of Understanding. The document states that Iran will “make its best efforts to ensure the safe passage of commercial ships from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa, free of charge for a period of 60 days.”
Iranian authorities say the clause gives Iran powers to control traffic in the strait. “This is the only way out,” Ebrahim Azizi, a spokesman for Iran’s hardline-dominated National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, wrote in X on Wednesday afternoon. “Recognizing Iran’s new order in the Strait of Hormuz.”
But the United States maintains that the clause only enumerates the responsibility of ensuring that Iran does not block passage through the strait, and does not give Iran a veto over who can pass through the waterway.
The same clause in the memorandum uses more moderate language, calling on Iran to engage in dialogue with Oman and other regional countries over the “future management and maritime services” of the vital waterway. Iran has held high-level talks with Muscat, but no breakthrough seems to have been achieved.
Majid Shakeri, an adviser to Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state TV on Tuesday night that Oman needs guarantees that parts of the strait within its territorial waters will not be used for military purposes against Iran. He said this could only be guaranteed through inspections by Iranian authorities and could be implemented with Oman’s assistance.
“Either we cling to this strait, or we go to it one by one and become martyrs,” Shakeri said, adding that the key lever was to extract “revenues are subordinate to management” over the strait.
Is there more to the story?
Although President Trump said he had no personal hope for a negotiated solution with Iran, the US president did not close the door to further negotiations.
“I’m going to talk to the negotiators. They want to negotiate. They’re good people,” he said of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who met with Iran along with Vice President J.D. Vance.
Negotiations were not expected to take place until after the week-long funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed along with many other military and political officials in Tehran on February 28 at the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Khamenei’s remains were taken to Iraq for a procession on Wednesday and buried in the Shiite holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran on Thursday.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was in Iraq for the procession, returned to Iran following the attack on his country. In a post on X, he said that US foreign policy and actions at the World Cup followed the same pattern.
“Bend the rules, bully rivals, create obstacles, cheat. This is their MAGA strategy. Iran rejects such games. We will firmly defend our rights,” said the president, who has come under fire from hardliners for supporting the deal.
Opponents of the memorandum, both inside and outside Iran, continue to express their eagerness to see Iran end.
Mahmoud Nabavian, a hardline cleric in parliament from Tehran, wrote in a post on X on Wednesday that the overnight attack once again proved that “the agreement with the terrorist[US]government, and the outcome of trusting and being optimistic about it, is nothing but a pure loss.”
Former Revolutionary Guards commander and adviser to the Supreme Leader Mohsen Rezaei told state television on Tuesday night that opponents of the deal should be patient.
“The United States will self-sabotage these talks. As we are seeing now, they will not allow them to produce any results.”
Rezaei also stressed that revenge against Khamenei and other Iranians must be taken against President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Khamenei’s funeral procession has sparked widespread calls for retribution, including against Trump personally. Some pro-government users of X published satellite images of the Ankara hotel where President Trump was staying on Wednesday, going so far as to call for a missile attack on the hotel.
Israel, which also opposes the memorandum, has repeatedly threatened to assassinate Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader and son of Ali Khamenei, and other officials.
Some Israeli media outlets, including Walla, reported on Wednesday that the Israeli military is preparing for the possibility of another war with Iran, including coordinating with CENTCOM and updating operational plans.
