A second commercial vessel was struck by an Iranian drone off Oman's coast during a Strait of Hormuz crossing, hours after Iran claimed retaliatory strikes on American-linked targets and the U.S. bombed Iranian missile and drone depots in southern Iran. CENTCOM said the U.S. will protect commercial shipping and ensure freedom of navigation. VP Vance warned: 'Violence will be met with violence.'
The weekend's first military confrontation between Iran and the United States since their memorandum of understanding escalated on Saturday with a drone strike on a commercial vessel off the coast of Oman, according to a roundup published by reports. The attack came hours after Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. overnight strikes on missile and drone depots and coastal radar sites in southern Iran — a CENTCOM operation that followed an Iranian suicide drone hitting a merchant ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday.
VP J.D. Vance responded to the U.S. strikes on Saturday evening: 'Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We met all our commitments. If they have disputes about the implementation of the MOU, they can call. But violence will be met with violence.'
Iran's Foreign Ministry denounced the U.S. strikes as a violation of the MOU and said it had carried out retaliatory operations against American-linked targets, with simultaneous reporting of an Iranian attack in Bahrain. Hours later, a second commercial vessel was reported hit off Oman's coast while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
CENTCOM stated that the U.S. will not allow attacks on commercial shipping and is continuing to increase maritime traffic through the strait and ensure freedom of navigation.
As The Zioneer reported on Friday night, Middle Eastern sources indicated that Iran had decided to respond to the U.S. strike and assessed that the Israel-Lebanon agreement would likely derail U.S.-Iran talks and trigger a return to hostilities. The Friday U.S. strikes followed a suicide drone attack on the commercial vessel M/V Ever Lovely.
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