The U.S. military has maintained a blockade of Iranian ports and maritime trade since April 13, and has fired on four vessels as part of the effort.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned on May 9 that it would retaliate against any further U.S. military operations targeting Iranian commercial vessels.
“Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack against one of the American centers in the region and enemy ships,” the IRGC Navy said in a statement shared through state media.
The United States and Iran have maintained an uneasy ceasefire since April 7, but Tehran has bristled at a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and maritime trade that President Donald Trump implemented on April 13.
As of Saturday, the U.S. Central Command reported its forces in the Middle East had redirected 58 commercial ships attempting to conduct trade with Iran, and has employed disabling fire to stop four vessels.
The blockade has constrained Iran’s maritime trade and mounted pressure on Tehran.
Iranian forces have also increasingly tested the limits of the April 7 ceasefire.
As U.S. warships began escorting non-Iranian ships through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on May 4, Iranian forces tried to disrupt the effort with missiles, drones, and attack boats. U.S. forces successfully intercepted the Iranian attacks, but Trump suspended the maritime escort mission a day later, on May 5.
On May 6, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet used its 20 mm cannon to disable the rudder of an Iranian tanker attempting to reach an Iranian port.
Iranian forces launched another series of missiles and attack drones at three U.S. guided-missile destroyers on May 7. The U.S. military said these Iranian attacks had been unprovoked, but Iran’s military said its attacks were in response to earlier U.S. actions targeting two more Iran-linked commercial vessels.
On May 1, Trump formally notified Congress that the military hostilities that began with Iran on Feb. 28 had “terminated” and referenced the April 7 ceasefire. Trump’s notification coincided with a deadline stipulated under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which sets a 60-day timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from combat operations that have not been authorized by Congress.
By Ryan Morgan
