Iran to control Hormuz over ‘next 30 days’

Iran’s foreign minister said yesterday the Strait of Hormuz will remain under Iran’s total oversight and management for “the next 30 days”, and warned that any challenge to the country’s control of the strategic waterway would increase tensions.

“Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions, as we witnessed in the past two nights,” Abbas Araghchi said at a news conference on a visit to Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Tehran’s top diplomat also called for the establishment of a security framework among Gulf countries, and urged all parties to adhere to the memorandum of understanding following recent attacks traded between both sides, reports Al Jazeera online.

Tehran said yesterday it carried out a third day of retaliatory strikes against US attacks on Iranian territory, as both accused the other of violating their fragile ceasefire, straining negotiations meant to end the Middle East war.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they were taking measures to control traffic in the Hormuz and that violating vessels would be dealt with more firmly than before.

The only authorised passage by Tehran passes through a corridor running along Iran’s coast. The Guards said they had also carried out retaliatory strikes in Kuwait and Bahrain.

In a statement, they said the strikes “destroyed eight important US military facilities at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait and at the Fifth Fleet naval base in Port Salman in Bahrain”. Air raid sirens rang out twice in Bahrain yesterday, according to the Gulf nation’s interior ministry.

A memorandum of understanding was reached in mid-June under Pakistan’s mediation, aimed at putting a lasting end to the war. The text signed by the United States and Iran said both countries, and their respective allies, were “not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other”.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Iran would “no longer exist” if the United States is “forced” to resume the war.

“United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote.

Meanwhile, Israel renewed strikes on Lebanon yesterday, Lebanese state media reported, two days after an agreement was signed by the two countries, which a Hezbollah lawmaker warned would lead to “internal conflict”.

The strikes come a day after one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the south, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it targeted Hezbollah members near its self-proclaimed “security zone”, which is 10 kilometres (6 miles) deep into Lebanon.