Middle East crisis liveIran Middle East crisis live: US launches new wave of strikes on Iran; Tehran says attacks render diplomacy ‘futile’ Iran has sought to establish a permanent system for collecting fees in the strait of Hormuz and warned vessels not to sail without its authorisation LIVE Updated 6m ago Kate Lamb Mon 13 Jul 2026 00.14 BSTFirst published on Sun 12 Jul 2026 23.43 BST Share Key events 35m ago Opening summary Tehran announced it was closing the strait of Hormuz on 12 July and launched missiles and drones at its Gulf neighbours, in retaliation for new US strikes.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said after the incident that “the Strait of Hormuz will be closed until further notice and until the end of American interventions in this region,” according to state news agency IRNA.
CENTCOM countered on X that the strait was “open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit.” It said US forces were “positioned and prepared to ensure” freedom of navigation, adding: “Iran does not control the strait.
Traffic is flowing.” Control of the waterway has become key leverage for Iran, with an adviser to the country’s supreme leader on Sunday saying it was more important than “dozens of atomic bombs”.
The latest salvo by US forces began at 2100 GMT on Sunday, Central Command (CENCTOM) said on X, after earlier announcing approximately 140 strikes the previous night.
On Sunday evening, Iranian state media reported at least 10 “enemy projectiles” hitting Qeshm Island, which sits on the strait of Hormuz.
It also reported strikes on the island of Farur, to the east of Qeshm in the Gulf, that it said killed a telecommunications worker and wounded two others.
Shortly after, Kuwait said three of its land border posts in the north were damaged in an attack, and that an offshore drilling platform “was targeted by a hostile drone,” with one person injured.
Tehran said it had targeted two ships in Hormuz early Sunday, including the one that caught fire.
Iran’s Guards said they also hit Oman, which has rarely been targeted.
The US and Iran have again exchanged heavy missile and drone assaults, with Tehran targeting US facilities in states across the Gulf and saying it had again closed the vital strait of Hormuz.
The US military began launching more strikes against Iran at 5 pm ET on Sunday, US Central Command said in a statement, “to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait of Hormuz.” In a brief phone interview with Reuters on Sunday afternoon, Trump referred to this weekend’s US strikes on Iran.
“We’re beating them up,” he said.
Iran’s latest barrage marked an escalation in pace and range, extending as far as Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks that had not come under attack since April.
The United Arab Emirates, which had not been targeted since early May, said its air defenses had engaged missiles and drones from Iran.
The renewed violence casts further doubt on the future of an interim US-Iranian agreement signed last month that aimed to reopen the strait and end the war after a further 60 days of negotiations.
Iran said early on Monday that the latest attacks had “rendered futile” all the diplomatic efforts of the last few months.
“The US regime has also caused the return of insecurity in the strait of Hormuz and disruption of international commercial shipping by openly interfering in the process of Iran implementing the necessary arrangements in the strait of Hormuz,” a foreign ministry statement said.
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