USA Violates Iran Ceasefire (Again)
The US regime struck three sites in southern Iran on Thursday night, after they violated the April 7 ceasefire agreement with an attack on an Iranian oil tanker. The USA claims that the attacks inside Iran targeted missile launch sites used in Iran’s response to the initial U.S. ceasefire violation.
Iran’s response included a combined-arms operation against three US Navy destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz: USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason. The Iranian armed forces statement claim the operation as a self-defence response to a US strike on an Iranian oil tanker near Bandar Jask and the destroyers’ approach to the strait, a claim that lines up with the recorded events of the night. The USA’s CENTCOM corroborated the identities and number of the destroyers, confirmed Iran fired missiles, drones, and small boats, however, they claim no US asset was struck. The Iranian military claims that significant damage was inflicted on the warships.
A senior US official told Fox News that the strikes on Qeshm Port, Bandar Abbas, and Bandar Kangan in Minab “do not constitute a resumption of the war or end to the ceasefire.” The legal reality of this is not sound, an entity cannot violate a ceasefire and also declare that there is no return to hostilities, the truth behind this claim we will only see in the days to follow.
The US regime struck Iranian sovereign territory before the Iranian counterstrike, according to the currently understood timeline of events. This leaves no room for the USA’s framing of the event to take hold. CENTCOM claims the Iranian counterstrike was “unprovoked” and the US response “self-defense.” This is an outright lie, as the USA’s blockade was a breach of the ceasefire agreement before the events of tonight took place.
For “unprovoked” to be true, the blockade, the attack on Iran’s oil tanker, and tonight’s strikes on three Iranian sites must be removed from the history. All these events are now recorded history, so we must dismiss the statements made by the U.S. ruling regime.
Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of any state. Article 51 permits self-defence in response to an armed attack. Under the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, naval blockade is a measure of armed conflict. A state at peace does not blockade another state, a state in a ceasefire does not blockade other parties to that ceasefire agreement. A ceasefire under which one party maintains a blockade, strikes the other party’s flagged tankers, and bombs the other party’s command, control, and ISR infrastructure is not a ceasefire. It is the conduct of a war under the label of a ceasefire.
Iran’s armed forces statement claims “significant damage” to US destroyers based on “intelligence monitoring.” CENTCOM denies any US asset was struck. Neither side has produced corroborating evidence to back up either claim, so it’s currently difficult to assess where the truth lies on this. The pattern from prior Iranian damage claims in this war is one where the USA denies any claim, despite multiple ships being taken out of service through damage. The USA consistently claims the damage to ships never came from Iranian attacks, a claim that is increasingly difficult to believe.
CBS News reported, citing US officials speaking on condition of anonymity, that Iranian fast-attack boats manoeuvred close enough to the destroyers that the warships opened fire from their deck weaponry to keep them at bay. The defence drew on the destroyers’ five-inch naval guns, their close-in weapon systems, and small-calibre gun teams on deck. Apache helicopters fired Hellfire missiles and .50-calibre machine guns. This report makes the counterattack look far more effective than the USA is willing to admit publicly, and entirely dispels the consistent claim that the USA has “entirely destroyed” the Iranian navy.
The strikes occurred while the US regime was publicly framing an Iran deal as imminent, U.S. President Donald Trump said this week that an agreement could be a week away. Pakistan, the mediator, said an Iranian agreement was expected “sooner rather than later.” The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had lifted the basing restrictions that had earlier frozen Project Freedom, the immediate logistical precondition for the strikes of tonight, which occurred just hours after the restrictions were lifted.
The April 7 ceasefire has not been a ceasefire. The USA has violated the ceasefire since the first moments of the deal, enacting a blockade that is wholly incompatible with a ceasefire agreement. Tonight’s events are not a fresh violation of the ceasefire agreement, they are yet another example that the USA never intended to obey the agreement signed on April 7.