A one-way attack drone launched by Iran struck the Singapore-flagged cargo ship Ever Lovely in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, off the coast of Oman. The vessel was able to continue through the strait, which is a major thoroughfare for the shipment of oil. The United States military responded the following day with strikes against Iranian targets.
According to CNBC, U.S. Central Command said its aircraft "struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites." President Donald Trump had accused Iran of a "foolish violation" of a ceasefire agreement that both countries had signed more than a week earlier.
Trump also said the U.S. military "knocked down" three other attack drones aimed at ships in the strait before the retaliatory strikes were announced. When asked by a reporter at the White House whether there would be consequences for Iran violating the ceasefire, Trump replied, "You'll find out."
The ceasefire violation came more than a week after Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing a permanent peace deal. Vice President JD Vance had traveled to Switzerland the previous weekend for talks with Iranian counterparts about that deal.
Vance posted on X after the incident, writing, "Iran signed a ceasefire agreement. We have honored it." He added, "If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone." He concluded, "But violence will be met with violence."
Central Command stated that "the unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire." It further said that "Iran's dangerous behavior undermined freedom of navigation as commerce increasingly flows through the vital international trade corridor."
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded with its own statement after the American strikes. The IRGC said, "Following the violation of the ceasefire by the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon, a few hours ago, the treaty-breaking US regime, as always, violated its commitments and, under various pretexts, attacked the coasts of the Islamic Republic of Iran with an airstrike due to the passage of a violating ship through an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz."
The IRGC stated that its Navy "responded to this aggression by striking the positions of the US terrorist army in the region." The statement also referenced the memorandum of understanding directly, saying, "According to clause 5 of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, the arrangements for controlling passage in the Strait of Hormuz are with the Islamic Republic of Iran." The IRGC closed with a warning: "If the aggression is repeated, our response will be broader than this."
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission of the Iranian parliament, also posted on X, though the full text of his statement was not available at the time of reporting. The situation remained fluid as of Friday, with both sides claiming the other had broken the terms of the ceasefire agreement first. No details had been released about casualties or the extent of damage from the IRGC's retaliatory strikes against U.S. positions in the region.
