A Projectile Hits a Cargo Ship in the

Strait of Hormuz

A cargo ship was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, a key point of tension in the US-Iran conflict, on Tuesday as US President Donald Trump said he was negotiating with Iran to reopen the waterway.

The single sharpest fact in this story is that a cargo ship was attacked while Trump was insisting Iran talks could reopen the waterway.

US President Donald Trump has been at war with Iran since February 28, when the US and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran. Despite a ceasefire and a preliminary deal in the months since, diplomacy has failed to end the war. The Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for global oil and gas supplies, has been the spark for repeated returns to fighting. Iran wants to maintain control over and charge tolls for the strait, powers it did not exercise before the war and which the US fiercely opposes.

### Trump Insists Talks Are Ongoing

Trump continued his now familiar combination of bullish optimism about diplomacy and bellicose threats, warning that this was Iran’s “last chance before decapitation”. Iran’s foreign ministry denied that negotiations with Washington were taking place, even as Trump insisted they were. “We are talking right now,” the US president said.

### A Key Conduit for Global Oil and Gas Supplies

The Strait of Hormuz has been a point of contention between Iran and the US for months. Iran has imposed an effective blockade on the strait and insists ships coordinate crossings with it and take a route that hugs the Iranian coast. Many vessels have instead chosen to take a southern route, close to Oman on the opposite side of the strait.

### What Happens Next?

The US is keen to see Iran's nuclear programme denuclearised, which Trump said could “take a little while”. Iran insists its programme is civilian, aimed at generating electricity. The US has placed counter-blockades on Iranian ports, saying nothing gets through to Iran unless they want it to. Nothing will get through unless a deal or total surrender is accomplished.

### More Than Five Months of War

The war has cost Washington billions of dollars, but Iran remains able to fire missiles and drones at US and allied targets in the region and retains its enriched uranium stockpiles.

### A Vessel Hit, But Damage Unknown

Britain’s maritime security agency UKMTO said a cargo vessel had been struck by an “unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. The vessel was not named, and authorities were investigating, UKMTO said, without offering information on damage or injuries.