US, Iran Vie for Control of Strait     07/13 06:19

   The United States and Iran each asserted Monday they controlled the Strait 
of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, 
further threatening any diplomacy to end the war.

   DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The United States and Iran each asserted 
Monday they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks 
stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to 
end the war.

   The attacks, sparked by Iran striking a container ship Sunday in the strait 
off the coast of Oman, again underlined that the waterway that once saw a fifth 
of the world's traded crude oil and natural gas pass through it remained the 
key issue in negotiations. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf has seen 
shipping disrupted since the start of the war as Iran has maintained a 
chokehold on it by attacking commercial vessels around it, intimidating 
shippers.

   Iran and the U.S. are nearly halfway through the 60-day interim deal period 
that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war. Instead, it 
has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait and its future, worrying 
world leaders the Iran war could fully resume.

   "A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences," 
United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said in a statement.

   US says it has struck dozens of targets in Iran

   The U.S. military's Central Command described its forces as hitting dozens 
of sites in the strikes Monday, including air defense systems, radar sites, 
missile and drone equipment and small boats.

   "The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade," 
Central Command said. "Iran does not control it."

   The European Union's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for the strait 
to be open as it was before the war.

   "The Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, freedom of navigation has to be 
respected," she said.

   Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country's 
theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, sharply rejected 
America's statement.

   "The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and 
child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal 
interference in it," the Guard said.

   Missile alert sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home to the U.S. 
Navy's 5th Fleet, and Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was 
no immediate word on damage in either country.

   In Jordan, the kingdom's military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in 
an incident that "resulted in zero casualties or material damage." Jordan also 
hosts U.S. military forces and aircraft.

   In Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi 
provinces and at least two people were killed, according to state-run IRNA news 
agency. Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes on Sistan and 
Baluchestan province as well.

   Meanwhile, a base belonging to the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom 
Party, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq's semiautonomous 
northern Kurdistan region, came under drone attack on Monday. Rebaz Sharifi, 
commander of the Kurdistan Militia Corps, said the strikes targeted the group's 
Chamshar base, without giving details on casualties or damage. No group 
immediately claimed responsibility.

   Fighting focuses on the status of the strait

   The U.S. military early Sunday said it hit some 140 targets, including 
missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and 
other sites -- a far-heavier set of attacks than in two previous rounds of 
strikes in the last week.

   "We bombed the hell out of them last night," U.S. President Donald Trump 
told NBC's "Meet the Press."

   Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting U.S. military 
forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge 
vessels for traveling through it.

   Sunday's attacks stretched to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and even Oman 
-- whose territorial waters with Iran make up the strait. Oman, which long has 
been an interlocutor between Tehran and the West, summoned an Iranian diplomat 
to criticize the attack.

   Iran described the strait as closed, while the U.S. military and Trump 
asserted it remained open.

   Iran's chokehold on the strait, however, has loosened as the U.S. military 
provided support to vessels moving along a southern route hugging the coastline 
of Oman. That new route has angered Iran, which launched repeated attacks on 
ships using it.

   Iran's grip on the strait led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices 
have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel. But traffic numbers 
through the strait on the Oman route dropped over the weekend "to minimal 
levels, indicating that operators continue to prioritize perceived security 
over more direct transit options," the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com 
said.

   Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for 
the chaos gripping the Middle East.

   "Considering the memorandum of understanding's fourteen clauses, the 
Americans have, in this brief period, in one way or another, slaughtered its 
various components," Baghaei told journalists Monday.

   Baghaei also said Iran wouldn't agree to visits by the International Atomic 
Energy Agency to Iranian nuclear sites bombed in 2025 by the U.S., where 
Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed still to be.

   Attacks followed more diplomatic talks about the strait

   Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was "over." But 
mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach 
a final agreement to end the war.

   A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of 
anonymity to discuss talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued 
Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran's top 
diplomat and urged "de-escalation" on both sides.

   Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen since the war 
began, on Saturday vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his 
father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing.