Iran and US harden positions as Tehran keeps grip on Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States hardened their positions as diplomacy aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the war appeared to be faltering Thursday. Tehran moved to formalize its control over the crucial Strait of Hormuz as Washington prepared for the arrival of combat forces that could be used on the ground in the Islamic Republic.

Industry experts described Iran as instituting a “de facto ‘toll booth’ regime” with some ships paying in Chinese yuan to pass through the strait, through which 20% of all oil and natural gas traded typically passes in peacetime.

Meanwhile, a strike group anchored by the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli drew closer to the Mideast with some 2,500 Marines, and at least 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne have been ordered to the region.

The U.S. troop movements don’t guarantee U.S. President Donald Trump will try to use force to compel Iran to open the strait and halt its attacks on Gulf Arab states.

Trump previously deployed a large force in the Caribbean before the American military captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, though in the current situation the U.S. is seen as focused on possibly seizing Iran’s oil terminal at Kharg Island or other sites near the strait.

U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, who commands the American military in the region, said that his forces have hit more than 10,000 targets since Israel and the U.S. started the war Feb. 28, destroying 92% of Iran’s largest ships and more than two-thirds of the country’s missile, drone and naval production facilities.

“We’re not done yet,” said Cooper, who heads the U.S. Central Command, in a video message. “We are on a path to completely eliminate Iran’s wider military apparatus.”

Iran seen as operating Strait of Hormuz as ‘de facto toll booth’

With its stranglehold on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf toward the open ocean, Iran has been blocking ships connected to supporting the U.S. and Israeli war effort, but letting through a trickle of others with a “de facto ‘toll booth’ regime,” Lloyd’s List Intelligence said in a new analysis.

The shipping intelligence firm described vessels having to provide manifests, crew details and their destination to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard for sanctions screening, cargo alignment checks that currently prioritizes oil over all other commodities, and for what is described as ‘geopolitical vetting,’” Lloyd’s List said.

“While not all ships are paying a direct toll, at least two vessels have and the payment is settled in yuan,” Lloyd’s List said, referring to China’s national currency.

Iran has not directly explained the process for ships to go through the strait, though a Foreign Ministry spokesman appeared to acknowledge Tehran was receiving payments for some ships in an interview this week.

Iran’s grip on the strait and relentless attacks on Gulf regional energy infrastructure has sent oil prices skyrocketing, and growing concerns of a global energy crisis. Brent crude, the international standard, traded at US$104 early Thursday, up more than 40% from the day the war started.

“To make it crystal clear, this war is a catastrophe for world’s economies,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters in Canberra, after meeting with his Australian counterpart in the capital.

US maintains negotiations are ongoing but Iran says there are no talks

Using Pakistan as an intermediary, Washington has delivered Iran a 15-point proposal to bring about a ceasefire, which includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump, speaking at a fundraiser Wednesday night in Washington, insisted that Iran still wants to cut a deal.

“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” said Trump, who added: “They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview on state TV, however, that his government has not engaged in talks to end the war, “and we do not plan on any negotiations.”

Araghchi said the U.S. had tried to send messages to Iran through other nations, “but that is not a conversation nor a negotiation.”

Press TV, the English-language broadcaster on Iranian state television, said Iran had its own five-point proposal, which includes a halt to killings of its officials, safeguards against future attacks on Iran, reparations for the war, the end of hostilities and recognition of Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”

Israel hits Iran in wave of strikes while Iran fires on Gulf neighbors

Activists in Iran reported heavy morning strikes around Isfahan, a city some 330 kilometers (205 miles) south of Tehran. The pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan reported online about strikes in the area.

Isfahan is home to a major Iranian air base and other military sites, as well as one of the nuclear sites bombed by the United States during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.

The semiofficial Fars news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, described the attacks as targeting “two residential areas,” without elaborating.

Israel later said it had carried out a wave of strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure.

Sirens sounded very early on Thursday morning in parts of Tel Aviv and cities in central Israel. There was no advance warning, as has been customary from Iranian missile salvos, suggesting it was rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted multiple drones over its oil-rich Eastern Province, the United Arab Emirates’ air defenses also worked to intercept incoming fire, and Bahrain reported extinguishing a blaze at a neighborhood that is home to the Bahrain International Airport.

Since the war began, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Iran, its Health Ministry says. Twenty people have been killed in Israel; two Israeli soldiers have also been killed in Lebanon. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have also died.

Nearly 1,100 people have died in Lebanon, authorities said. In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militant groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have been killed.

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Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Florida contributed to this report.