Iran’s top negotiator, parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned earlier this week that Tehran would be responding more forcefully to future US attacks.
“The Americans must have understood that the era of proportionate responses has come to an end,” Ghalibaf said in a speech carried by Iranian state media.
In recent days, the Iranian-backed Houthis have also launched a wave of attacks in Saudi Arabia that targeted oil infrastructure as well as air bases in Saudi Arabia. At least 70 people were wounded in the attacks, according to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which launched its own counterattack.
The escalation by the Houthis threatens to further destabilise the global economy by putting pressure on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which has been an alternative route for Saudi Arabia as it seeks to avoid the Strait of Hormuz for its oil exports.
The oil tankers struck by the United States are affiliated with Iran’s IRGC, the paramilitary force that is the most powerful institution in Tehran, said a statement from US Central Command (Centcom), which oversees American military operations in the Middle East. The attacks followed similar strikes that occurred last week, as Iranian and US forces have continued to trade fire amid stunted diplomatic efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire.
Tuesday’s violence followed IRGC forces twice targeting a US warship with ballistic missiles over the last two days, the Centcom statement said. The vessel, which US officials did not identify by name, evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and continued to patrol waters in the region, US officials said, adding that no American troops were harmed.
The vessels destroyed include the Iranian motor tankers Kaviz, Charminar, Horizon 1, Riesco in the Gulf of Oman and the Derya near Kharg Island, a strategically important oil terminal in the Persian Gulf, officials said. US troops directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were hit, the military statement said.
The Iranian government made no immediate public statements following the US announcement. Earlier in the day, Iranian Deputy Parliament Speaker Ali Nikzad said the recent Iranian attacks on US warships represented only a small fraction of Iran’s military capabilities, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, a state media outlet.
The action on Tuesday follows US forces targeting three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday after the IRGC launched ballistic missiles at two US Navy warships in the region, US military officials said in a statement at that time.
An American aircraft carrier and destroyer successfully avoided those attacks, and no US service members were wounded, the statement said.
“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost – taking out three of yours,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of Centcom, said in the statement. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
The US Navy is enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports as Tehran keeps a tight grip on commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passageway long vital to the shipment of Middle Eastern oil and other commodities. Access to the strait, and the global economic implications of its closure, remains a major obstacle to ending the war.
US forces also carried out strikes on Iranian military infrastructure a week ago. Among the targets hit then were IRGC air-defence sites, radar systems, mine-laying equipment and maritime facilities, Centcom said in a statement at the time.
That action followed attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and US service members in the region, Centcom said.
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