DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz has reported being attacked by multiple small craft, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said Sunday, marking at least two dozen attacks in and around the strait since the Iran war began.
All crew on the unidentified northbound carrier were safe after the attack off Sirik, Iran, east of the strait, the monitor said. Iranian officials have asserted
that they control the strait and that ships not affiliated with the United States or Israel can pass if they pay a toll.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the first reported in the area since April 22, when a cargo ship reported being fired upon, the monitor said. The threat level in the area remains critical. Tehran effectively closed the strait by attacking and threatening ships.
Iranian patrol boats, some powered only by twin outboard motors, are small, nimble and hard to detect and have attacked several ships. President Donald Trump last month ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the strait.
The fragile three-week ceasefire appears to be holding, though Trump on Saturday told journalists that further strikes remained a possibility.
Iran’s latest proposal to the United States wants issues between them to be resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire, according to Iran’s state-linked media.
Trump on Saturday said he was reviewing the proposal but expressed doubt it would lead to a deal, adding on social media that “they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years” since the Islamic Revolution there.
Iran’s 14-point proposal also calls for the U.S. lifting sanctions on Iran, ending the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdrawing forces from the region and ceasing all hostilities, including Israel’s operations in Lebanon, according to the semiofficial Nour News and Tasnim agencies, which have close ties to Iran's security organizations.
There was no mention in those reports, however, of Iran's nuclear program and its enriched uranium, long the central issue in tensions with the U.S. and one that Tehran would rather address later.
Iran sent its reply via Pakistan, which hosted face-to-face talks last month between Iran and the United States.
Pakistan's prime minister, foreign minister and army chief continue to encourage the U.S. and Iran to speak directly, according to two officials in Pakistan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Also on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who oversaw previous rounds of talks before the war.
Trump has offered a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where about a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes, along with fertilizer badly needed by farmers around the world.
Iran's grip on the strait, imposed after the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, has shaken global markets.
Tehran “will not back down from our position on the Strait of Hormuz, and it will not return to its prewar conditions," Iran’s deputy parliament speaker said Sunday. Ali Nikzad, who has no decision-making power in parliament, spoke while visiting port facilities on strategic Larak Island.
The U.S. has warned shipping companies they could face sanctions for paying Iran in any form, including digital assets, to transit the strait safely.
Meanwhile, the U.S. naval blockade since April 13 is depriving Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy. The U.S. Central Command on Saturday said 48 commercial ships have been told to turn back.
“We think that they’ve gotten less than $1.3 million in tolls, which is a pittance on their previous daily oil revenues,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Sunday. He said Iran's oil storage is rapidly filling up and "they’re going to have to start shutting in wells, which we think could happen in the next week.”
On Sunday, the second day of Iran's working week, the rial weakened further against the U.S. dollar. In Tehran’s Ferdowsi Street, the capital’s main currency exchange hub, the dollar was trading at 1,840,000 rials.
Analysts say there is a strong possibility the currency will slip further.
The rial was trading at 1.3 million to the dollar in December, a record low at the time, and triggered widespread protests over the worsening economy. Markets in Tehran remain unstable, with prices of some goods rising daily.
According to reports in Iranian media, several factories have not renewed contracts for workers after the Iranian new year in March, and significant numbers have lost their jobs.
Yousef Pezeshkian, the son and adviser of President Masoud Pezeshkian, wrote on Telegram that both the United States and Iran see themselves as the winner of the war and are unwilling to back down.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Saturday urged Iran to immediately transfer imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi for treatment by her medical team in Tehran after her health sharply deteriorated.
The committee said it was in touch with Mohammadi’s family and lawyer, and that the 2023 laureate’s life remains at risk.
The rights lawyer fainted twice in prison on Friday in the northwestern city of Zanjan, her foundation said, and was admitted to a local hospital. Her lawyers have said she is believed to have suffered a heart attack in late March.
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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
