President Trump said Iran breached its ceasefire agreement with the United States on June 26, 2026, after Iranian drones struck a commercial vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz the day before. “The Islamic Republic of Iran shot at least four One Way Attack Drones at Ships transversing the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “One of the Drones solidly hit the upper deck of a large and very expensive Cargo Carrying Ship. Damage was done, but the Ship was able to proceed on its way. We knocked down three other Drones. Obviously, this is a foolish violation of our Ceasefire Agreement.” The statement marked the first time Trump had publicly characterized an attack since the memorandum of understanding as a breach of the agreement itself.
What Happened to the Ship
The vessel struck was the Ever Lovely, a Singapore-flagged container ship operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corporation. A U.S. official who spoke to the Associated Press, that the ship was struck by a drone operated by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center said the vessel reported being hit on its starboard side by a projectile roughly 7.5 nautical miles southeast of the Omani port of Dahit. The ship had loaded cargo in Iraq and was attempting to transit the strait using a route along the Omani coast identified by the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, according to Time. No injuries or major environmental damage were reported, and the vessel was able to continue its voyage.
Iran’s Warning Beforehand
The strike came hours after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had explicitly warned commercial vessels against using the Omani-backed route without Tehran’s coordination. In a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, naval officials said the route “was established without notice or coordination with Iran,” calling it “unacceptable and completely dangerous.” “The only authorized route for passing through the Strait of Hormuz is the one declared by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the statement said. “Vessel traffic outside these routes is extremely dangerous and prohibited… Violators will be dealt with.” A day earlier, the Revolutionary Guard had radioed a separate tanker with an explicit threat, with a soldier warning, “You are in range of my missiles and maybe (I) fire on you,” according to the private maritime security firm Ambrey.
The UN’s Response
The International Maritime Organization had only begun evacuating stranded ships and seafarers from the Persian Gulf two days before the strike. The IMO had begun moving roughly 600 ships and 11,000 mariners stranded by the strait’s earlier closure through two designated corridors, one through Iranian waters and another through Omani waters under U.S. oversight. IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez confirmed the Ever Lovely was not part of that evacuation framework, but paused the broader evacuation effort regardless following the attack, saying the plan would remain on hold until the agency could confirm safety guarantees for ships still in the region. By Friday, Dominguez said roughly 115 vessels and 2,500 sailors had already been evacuated since the operation began Tuesday.
Iran’s Response
Iran did not directly claim responsibility for the strike in public statements, even as U.S. officials attributed it to the Revolutionary Guard. Instead, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a body Iran established to manage the waterway, said transit outside its designated routes “will not be covered by the guarantee of safe passage,” adding that “consequences arising from passage through unauthorised routes shall be the responsibility of the owner, operator, and vessel commander.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei separately defended Iran’s right to act, writing, “Iran’s national security and dignity are matters that brook no compromise or condition; just as the inherent right to legitimate self-defense is not open to discussion, the means of this defense cannot be subject to bargaining or concession with any party.”
Diplomatic Fallout
The strike prompted swift diplomatic engagement among regional powers. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran and Oman would hold talks “to define future administration and maritime services in Strait of Hormuz,” following a phone call with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi. Separately, the United Arab Emirates said its foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, spoke by phone with Araghchi and “emphasized the importance of full commitment” to the U.S.-Iran memorandum, adding in a statement that “serious diplomacy and responsible dialogue are the optimal path for addressing all regional and international crises.”
U.S. Officials’ Response
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers in Bahrain at the time of the strike, reiterated U.S. opposition to any Iranian effort to impose tolls or fees on shipping through the strait. “There is zero support among the Gulf countries for any sort of toll or fees or anything that charges for the use of international waters,” Rubio said. U.S. Central Command said separately that while the U.S. military is no longer maintaining a blockade of Iranian ports, its forces “remain present and vigilant throughout the region.”
The strike came as Trump separately announced plans to use unfrozen Iranian funds to purchase American agricultural goods on Iran’s behalf. “We’re going to be taking some of their money and we’ll spend it, and we’re going to be buying wheat, soybeans and corn. A lot of it,” Trump said at a Rose Garden dinner with farmers the day of the strike. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf disputed that characterization in a social media post, calling Trump’s claim false.
Effect on Oil Markets
The attack briefly reversed several days of falling oil prices tied to optimism over the ceasefire. According to Time, Brent crude rose more than 2 percent to about $75.50 a barrel on Thursday following the strike, before falling back roughly 2 percent to $74.03 a barrel in early trading Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude saw a similar pattern, rising before falling back to $70.38 a barrel. Jakob Larsen, chief security officer at BIMCO, the world’s largest shipping association, said in a statement that “the situation underscores the importance of clear and unambiguous agreements between the U.S. and Iran regarding a resumption of maritime traffic through the Strait. The wording of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding is currently not sufficiently clear.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking the same day at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s policy conference in Washington, struck a more optimistic tone about the broader trajectory of energy prices despite the disruption. “Gasoline is going to come back down,” Bessent said. “We are actually lower now than we were on February 27th in crude oil markets,” he added, referring to prices on the eve of the war’s outbreak.
What the Strike Means for the Ceasefire’s Future
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Ghalibaf, signaled the country’s intent to permanently change how the strait is governed, regardless of the ceasefire’s terms. He has previously declared that administration of the waterway “would never return to its pre-war status,” reinforcing concerns among analysts that Iran sees the war’s aftermath as an opportunity to assert lasting control over the chokepoint rather than simply return to prior norms once the immediate ceasefire holds.
The strike came as separate Israel-Lebanon ceasefire talks continued in Washington, with officials from both countries set to begin a fourth day of negotiations the same day. The Israeli military said separately that it had killed seven alleged Hezbollah operatives near the security zone in southern Lebanon, underscoring that multiple, only loosely connected fronts of the broader regional conflict remained active even as diplomats worked toward a more durable resolution to the Iran ceasefire specifically.