The United Arab Emirates said it was under attack from Iranian missiles and drones on Tuesday, even as Washington said a shaky ceasefire was intact despite an exchange of fire the previous day as U.S. forces attempted to force open the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. military said it had destroyed six Iranian small boats, as well as cruise missiles and drones, after President Donald Trump sent the navy to escort stranded tankers through the strait in a campaign he called “Project Freedom”.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation to protect commercial ships was temporary and the four-week-old truce was not over. “We’re not looking for a fight,” he told a press conference. “Right now the ceasefire certainly holds, but we’re going to be watching very, very closely.”
Iran fired missiles at U.S. ships on Monday and attacked the UAE, a key regional ally of Washington, with missiles and drones. After issuing a new map of the Strait of Hormuz with an expanded Iranian area of control, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned vessels on Tuesday to stick to the corridors it had set or face a “decisive response”.
Trump said Iran’s military had been reduced to firing “peashooters” and Tehran wanted peace, despite public sabre-rattling. “They play games, but let me just tell you, they want to make a deal,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Shortly after Hegseth spoke on Tuesday, the UAE’s defence ministry said its air defences were again dealing with missile and drone attacks coming from Iran. The Gulf Arab state’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the attacks were a serious escalation and posed a direct threat to the country’s security, adding that the UAE reserved its “full and legitimate right” to respond. Several merchant ships in the Gulf reported explosions or fires on Monday, and an oil port in the UAE, which hosts a large U.S. military base, was set ablaze by Iranian missiles. Iran also said it fired warning shots at a U.S. warship approaching the strait, forcing it to turn back.
Reuters could not independently verify events in the strait as the two sides issued contradictory statements. General Dan Caine, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iranian attacks against U.S. forces fell “below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point”.