US forces attacked a cargo ship they claimed was attempting to breach their naval blockade of Iran on Saturday.
Centcom said Lian Star ignored over 20 warnings before its forces struck the Gambia-flagged vessel’s engine room with a missile, stranding it in the Gulf of Oman.
The incident came as Tehran awaits the US president’s response to a proposed peace deal, as efforts to bring an end to the war drag on.
A senior official accused Trump of “betraying diplomacy for the third time”. Mohsen Rezaei pointed at the continuing naval blockade and what he called the president’s excessive demands in negotiations as he blamed the White House for failure to reach a peace deal.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Israeli troops pushed beyond the Litani river and seized the Crusader-era Beaufort fortress in their deepest invasion of the neighbouring country in over 25 years.
Defence minister Israel Katz said the country’s troops will remain stationed in the 900-year-old castle, where the flags of Israel and the IDF’s Golani Brigade have been hoisted.
On Friday morning, it issued a fresh evacuation warning for residents south of the Zahrani River in southern Lebanon.
