DUBAI: Iran said on Monday (Jul 27) it was still in control of the Strait of Hormuz and not seeking to resume peace talks with the United States, after President Donald Trump halted a two-week bombing campaign that his top brass told him had run its course.
Following 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing that provoked Tehran to fire on US bases in response, Trump halted the campaign over the weekend. Iran said it would pause its own attacks for as long as the US pause in bombing endures.
Trump’s decision to suspend the campaign reflected advice from his top brass that the bombing, aimed at breaking Iran’s grip on the strait, had reached the limits of what it could achieve, according to a US official and widespread US media reports.
The US official told Reuters that military commanders had advised the president that they were running out of targets. The official said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, had also expressed concern over the depletion of air defence weapons used to protect US bases in the region.
Similar reports indicating that civilian and military aides had advised Trump to halt the campaign were carried over the weekend by the New York Times, CNN, Axios and other news outlets.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, said on Sunday Trump had paused the campaign to allow room for negotiations.
But the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a televised press conference on Monday that Iran had not asked to resume peace talks with the United States.
The end of the US bombing campaign sent oil prices tumbling in the hope that disrupted global supplies could resume flowing. Brent crude, which had briefly ticked above US$100 a barrel last week for the first time since May, fell around 7.8 per cent by mid-morning on Monday to just under US$90.
But in a clear bid to signal that the US bombing had failed in its objective, Tehran indicated it was still in control of the world’s most important waterway for energy markets.
IRAN STATE MEDIA SAY SIX SHIPS TURNED BACK IN STRAIT
Several Iranian state media outlets carried the same report, citing an “informed source” as saying that Iran had turned around six “offending ships” on Monday morning that had attempted to cross the strait without its permission. One of the vessels, the source said, had had “an accident”.
“As previously announced, the traffic route in the Strait of Hormuz is the route specified by Iran, and other routes are contaminated and have no way out,” the Iranian state media reports quoted the source as saying.