CENTCOM says helicopter fired at engine room of Panama-flagged Vela Nova as US-Iran diplomacy stays stalled.
Printed On 11 Aug 2026
The USA navy has stated it fired on a ship making an attempt to interrupt its blockade of Iranian ports within the Gulf of Oman.
The assault on Tuesday comes amid a interval of relative calm within the US-Israeli war with Iran, with assaults principally paused since a 13-day escalation in July. That got here after a ceasefire as a part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran in June appeared to break down.
Really helpful Tales
checklist of three objectsfinish of checklist
In an announcement, US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the Center East, stated a Navy helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles on the Panama-flagged Vela Nova cargo vessel.
It stated the vessel “tried to transit the Gulf of Oman and violate the U.S. blockade towards Iran by crusing towards an Iranian port”.
The assault focused the ship’s engine room and disabled its steering gear, CENTCOM stated, alleging the crew “ignored repeated warnings from American forces”.
It didn’t say if any crew members have been wounded within the assault. In its assertion on Tuesday, CENTCOM stated US forces had disabled 55 business vessels all through its blockade on Iranian ports, disabled three “non-compliant vessels”, and boarded two.
The US reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports amid the latest return to combating, with Iran once more reasserting its management over the Strait of Hormuz. Each of these circumstances had been lifted as a part of the June MoU, which was meant to launch renewed negotiations on a extra lasting peace, in addition to the way forward for crippling sanctions on Iran and its nuclear programme.
Efforts to return to an settlement have to this point yielded little progress, with Trump on Monday showing to up the ante as he referred to as for reparations from Iran for “50 years” of harm. Tehran has beforehand referred to as for reconstruction funding to be a part of any deal, with the June MoU containing a preliminary plan for a $300bn fund.
The battle has been additional sophisticated within the newest bout of combating by assaults by the Yemen-based Houthis on ships within the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one other key commerce route within the area.
Iran, for its half, has largely centered its diplomatic efforts on direct talks with Oman to find out new transport traces within the Strait of Hormuz, an arterial waterway by means of which 20 p.c of the world’s maritime fossil gasoline commerce transited previous to the conflict launched by the US and Israel on February 28.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim information company on Tuesday quoted Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council, saying the Strait of Hormuz “is not going to be opened till america adjustments its behaviour and accepts Iran’s circumstances”.
He maintained that any settlement with Oman can be “separate” from the difficulty of the strait’s closure.
Pakistan’s Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in the meantime, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian officers, within the newest effort in direction of wider mediation of the conflict.
