US-Iran ceasefire on the brink as UAE reports attacks

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on May 4 denied that any commercial ships had crossed the Strait of Hormuz, after the US military earlier said two US-flagged merchant vessels had transited through the vital waterway. A ceasefire between Iran and the United States was teetering Monday as the two countries traded fire over the strategic Strait of Hormuz and the United Arab Emirates reported attacks for the first time since the truce was declared nearly a month ago. A day after President Donald Trump announced an operation to escort trapped vessels through the strait, Fox News quoted him as threatening that Iran would be “blown off the face of the earth” if it attacks US ships.

Iran appeared undaunted as it vowed to keep exerting control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil flowed before the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. A US admiral said US forces sank six small Iranian ships. The Islamic Republic on Tuesday denied any combat vessels had been hit, but accused the US of killing civilians on boats.

US forces “attacked two small boats carrying people… they martyred five civilian passengers and must be held accountable for their crime,” Iranian state TV posted on Telegram. The UAE, a close US ally and key Arab partner of Israel, said it came under a barrage of missiles and drones from Iran.

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“These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression, posing a direct threat to the state’s security, stability, and the safety of its territories,” the UAE’s foreign ministry said in a statement. A strike targeting an energy installation in the emirate of Fujairah injured three Indian nationals, UAE authorities said. Two people were also injured when a residential building was hit in Oman’s Bukha along the coastline of the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported. Oil prices climbed further after the UAE attack, with the benchmark international contract Brent crude for July delivery jumping more than five percent.

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