Breaking news: President Donald Trump publicly accused Iran of violating the U.S.-Iran ceasefire after a drone hit a cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz, turning Thursday’s vessel incident into a direct test of the fragile agreement meant to reopen the waterway.
CBS News reported that Trump said on Truth Social that Iran had fired “at least four” attack drones at ships crossing the strait. He said one drone hit the upper deck of a large cargo ship and that U.S. forces shot down three others. “Obviously, this is a foolish violation of our Ceasefire Agreement,” Trump wrote, according to CBS.
The ship at the center of the incident is the Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely, operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine. The Hindu’s live coverage reported that Evergreen said the vessel, crew, and cargo were unharmed after the ship was hit by an unidentified object in the Strait of Hormuz. Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority said the vessel suffered minor damage to the bridge area and had completed its transit.
A shipping incident becomes a ceasefire fight
The new angle is not simply that a ship was hit. List25 reported Thursday that U.S. officials said Iran had fired on a cargo ship and that the International Maritime Organization paused its evacuation framework. Trump’s public statement raises the political stakes because it frames the strike as a ceasefire violation by Iran at the highest U.S. level.
TIME reported that the strike came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned ships to coordinate with its navy and avoid routes outside those designated by Tehran. TIME said U.S. and Iranian officials confirmed the strike was Iranian, though Tehran had not publicly claimed responsibility.
That matters because the interim U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding was supposed to restore toll-free commercial passage through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days while negotiators try to settle larger disputes. Instead, ships are now moving through a route fight involving Iran, Oman, the IMO, Gulf states, and Washington.
Iran is still contesting the route
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Friday that safe passage through the strait could not be guaranteed without coordination with Tehran. The comments came after Oman, working with the IMO, designated temporary routes through the waterway, including a southern passage near Oman’s coast.
The route dispute is practical, not abstract. The Hindu, citing Reuters, reported that fewer vessels crossed the strait Friday than earlier in the week after the attack. Still, ship-tracking data showed tankers and commodity vessels continuing to move, including some using the southern passage despite Iranian warnings.
CBS also reported that Iran turned back three foreign tankers that attempted what Iranian state media called unauthorized passage through the strait. Those reports suggest Tehran is trying to enforce its preferred route even as the U.S. and Gulf partners press for predictable, open navigation.
U.N. says evacuations are still moving people out
The humanitarian side of the crisis is still unfolding. The head of the IMO, Arsenio Dominguez, said Friday that about 115 vessels and 2,500 seafarers had been evacuated from the Strait of Hormuz since Tuesday, according to CBS and The Hindu. That update came after the agency paused its broader effort to move hundreds of stranded ships and thousands of sailors out of the Persian Gulf following the vessel strike.
The IMO had previously said more than 11,000 seafarers were stuck in the region. The evacuation program was meant to show that the reopening of Hormuz was becoming operational, not just diplomatic. A drone strike, an IMO pause, and a presidential accusation now show how quickly that confidence can fracture.
The immediate question is whether Washington treats the incident as a contained warning shot or a breach that requires a stronger response. For shipping companies, the question is even simpler: whether Hormuz is open enough to risk crews, cargo, insurance, and schedules. Trump’s accusation makes clear the ceasefire is no longer being tested only at negotiating tables. It is being tested ship by ship.
Sources: CBS News, The Hindu, TIME, AP, Reuters, AFP.