Another Ship Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Trump Says No Iran Talks Are Scheduled

A ship was struck by an unknown projectile overnight while transiting out of the Strait of Hormuz, the UK Maritime Trade Operations center said Tuesday. The vessel was hit at 5:35 a.m. local time east of Al Khasab, Oman. UKMTO said the impact damaged the engine room and caused a crew casualty, with survivors being assisted by the Omani Coast Guard. No oil leak was reported.

According to CNN, UKMTO has logged 56 reports of vessel damage in the strait and nearby waters since the US-Iran war began February 28, and that count doesn't include a pair of attacks reported the same week on Abu Dhabi National Oil Company tankers, one of which UKMTO said suffered "minor damage" from a drone strike. CNBC reported that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for hitting two tankers transiting under US military escort, citing Iran's state-run PressTV, though American and British monitors have not confirmed that specific claim.

Shipping through Hormuz ran at just 17% of the pre-conflict average over a recent seven-day stretch, with only 151 ships making the transit, according to CNN. The riskiest stretch is the Southern Omani route, an alternate corridor that has absorbed 16 of 18 projectile strikes recorded since July 6, according to UKMTO data cited by CNN. No US-flagged vessels transited at all.

President Trump said Tuesday there is no ongoing dialogue with Iran and no talks are scheduled, according to the Washington Post. He also insisted the strait remains "open and operating," a claim that sits awkwardly next to UKMTO's own traffic numbers and the fresh attack reported the same day. Trump has previously floated declaring the strait US territory once the war against Iran is "finished," a claim Iran's deputy foreign minister dismissed, saying it "cannot be seized with a tweet," according to CNN.

Iran's position, laid out by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on Tuesday, is that the strait stays shut until Washington lifts what he called the blockade, unfreezes Iranian assets, lifts oil sanctions and ends military operations, according to the Epoch Times. That's Tehran's stated bottom line, not a confirmed negotiating outcome, and it leaves little visible room for a quick reopening.

Diplomacy hasn't gone completely quiet. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Trump by phone late Monday and pushed for "maximum use of diplomacy," according to a statement from Erdogan's office reported by the Epoch Times. Separately, US special envoy Jared Kushner told Fox News that Hamas could be "very close" to laying down arms after meetings in Cairo, a Gaza-track development running parallel to but distinct from the Iran standoff.

Trump also reportedly threatened to bomb Oman if it "gets in the way" of the Hormuz standoff, a threat two regional officials confirmed to the Washington Post came after Oman sought its own arrangement with Iran to manage shipping traffic. Threatening military action against a US partner nation that has historically served as a back-channel mediator between Washington and Tehran carries serious risk. Oman has not publicly detailed what deal it was pursuing with Iran, and it's a fair question whether striking a neutral broker helps or hurts the odds of ending the standoff.

On the energy side, oil prices climbed after Iran's tanker-strike claims. West Texas Intermediate closed up more than 1% at $84.67 a barrel and Brent settled at $90.12, according to CNBC. That followed a week where prices had dropped more than 5% on hopes of de-escalation, meaning the market is whipsawing on every headline out of the Gulf. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told CNBC the threat to oil supply has spread beyond Hormuz alone, while Exxon CEO Darren Woods said the strait "has to reopen" because the world still depends on Middle East barrels. S&P Global's Dan Yergin told CNBC that roughly 6 million barrels a day of refining capacity is currently offline globally, spanning Russia's diesel export shutdown and the Middle East disruption combined.

Separately, the State Department's Rewards for Justice program announced Tuesday a bounty of up to $10 million for information on five men: Behzad Mesri, Keyvan Fayyaz, Mojtaba Ghaleh-Kuh, Arman Kahzadian and Saber Shahbazi. They are accused of hacking US and allied infrastructure on behalf of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security and the IRGC, according to Fox News. No charges or indictments were cited alongside the bounty announcement in available reporting.

Trump says no talks are scheduled. Iran says the strait stays closed on its terms. And ships keep getting hit at a clip UKMTO has been tracking since February. Whether that Southern Omani corridor gets safer, worse, or simply avoided altogether is the next thing worth watching, along with whether Washington follows through on the Oman threat or lets Ankara's diplomatic opening actually go somewhere.