US, Iran Disagree on Who Controls Strait of Hormuz

The United States and Iran each asserted Monday they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war, the AP reports. The attacks, sparked by Iran striking a container ship Sunday in the strait off the coast of Oman, again underlined that the waterway that once saw a fifth of the world's traded crude oil and natural gas pass through it remained the key issue in negotiations. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf has seen shipping disrupted since the start of the war as Iran maintained a chokehold on it by attacking commercial vessels around it, intimidating shippers.

Iran and the US are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war. Instead, it has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait and its future, worrying world leaders the Iran war could fully resume. "A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. The US military's Central Command described its forces as hitting dozens of sites in the strikes Monday, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment, and small boats. "The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade," Central Command said. "Iran does not control it."

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country's theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, sharply rejected America's statement. "The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it," the Guard said. Missile alert sirens sounded twice Monday in Bahrain, home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet, and Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage in either country. Iranian state media acknowledged the latest attacks on its soil early Monday, describing explosions in several locations with at least one person being killed.