Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday that two oil tankers had been halted after unspecified "incidents" as they attempted to transit what Tehran considers an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz. "Two offending oil tankers, one in the eastern part and the other in the western part of the Strait of Hormuz, which were attempting to pass through the unauthorized route, encountered incidents and were brought to a halt in the waters south of the strait," the IRGC said in a statement. Iran has repeatedly warned shippers that using the southern route through the waterway, which has been promoted by the U.S., puts them at risk as the regime deems it an illegal passage.
The tankers had "switched off all their navigation and positioning systems and, with the support of the terrorist U.S. military, were attempting to exit through the unauthorized route," the IRGC statement said. The IRGC did not specify the nature of the incidents, which came a day after Iran's armed forces said at least four tankers had been forced to stop in the area after hitting sea mines. The U.K. navy's Maritime Trade Operations center said Thursday evening that a tanker was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz.
It was unclear if the ship reported by UKMTO to have been hit was one of the four Iran said had hit mines, but the timing of the report suggested it could have been a separate incident. Qatari officials returned to Iran on Friday to push for a peace deal between Tehran and Washington, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, along with and AFP, reported. The talks have been coordinated with the U.S., an official told .
The delegation is led by a senior adviser to Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister and is scheduled to meet with senior Iranian officials, IRNA said, adding that the discussions would focus on bilateral relations between Iran and Qatar, as well as developments in the region. An official briefed on the latest diplomacy confirmed to CBS News Wednesday that Qatari mediators had presented Iran with a new draft deal to end the war. A senior Iranian official told that Qatar had only come with "unacceptable" ideas, and that Tehran would not change its stance on the nuclear issue, something Washington wants included in negotiations from the start.
Tehran wants the U.S. to first lift its blockade of Iranian ports and to drop sanctions limiting the country's gas and oil sales. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday in a post on X that Tehran "continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed" and is working with mediators to review ideas that Tehran included in a proposal floated last month, which was summarily rejected by President Trump but which Iran still wants to see used as the basis for a new ceasefire agreement. Trump said a letter from Vice President JD Vance to Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei — which was reported by multiple outlets as an attempt to restart peace negotiations — was an outreach intended only to help get medical supplies into Iran.
Iran has yet to reply to the letter, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. Department of Defense has added two more service member deaths to its official account of casualties since the war with Iran started more than eight months ago, bringing the overall death toll to 23. Both of the newly noted deaths on the Defense Casualty Analysis System portal were noncombat related.
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