Tehran has struck a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz as countries try to reopen the oil route.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards attacked a Singapore-flagged commercial vessel with a drone on Thursday, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News. According to an advisory from the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre, the ship’s bridge was damaged after it was struck on its starboard side off the coast of Dahit, Oman, though no casualties or environmental impacts were reported.
The attack poses an immediate challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reopen the critical shipping corridor, which normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil.
Meanwhile, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio has dismissed concerns raised by the UAE over an Iranian toll on the Strait of Hormuz as “semantics.”
“You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee, at the end of the day it’s all semantics,” Rubio said during a visit to Bahrain, where he is meeting the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Washington has sought to reassure the region that no country, including Iran, will be allowed to charge tolls for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Aramco resumes oil loading today at Ras Tanura after 4-month halt
Saudi Aramco has resumed oil loading today at its Ras Tanura terminal in the Gulf after a near four-month halt, shipping data from LSEG showed, in a sign that Middle Eastern producers are pushing forward with plans to boost exports despite a ship attack in the Strait of Hormuz.
Ras Tanura sits on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast on the Gulf and is west of the Strait of Hormuz. It used to export more than 5 million bpd of crude before the conflict.
The country’s largest domestic 550,000 bpd refinery is also located at Ras Tanura, which was shut during the war as a precautionary measure.
Aramco last loaded a cargo from the Ras Tanura port for China on 8 March, LSEG data showed, and had to divert its exports to the Red Sea port of Yanbu after the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz during its war with the US and Israel prevented ships from entering the Gulf.
The war has caused Saudi crude exports to slump to about 4 million bpd in the past three months, the data showed, from more than 7 million bpd in February.
Two Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) controlled by Saudi’s shipping arm Bahri were seen loading crude at Ras Tanura, the world’s biggest oil port, while another waited nearby, the data showed. Each VLCC is capable of loading 2 million barrels of oil.
South Korea president says three more ships to leave Strait of Hormuz over the weekend
South Korean president Lee Jae Myung said on X on Friday that three additional vessels are set to depart the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.
He added that this will leave five South Korean cargo ships trapped in the key waterway since the beginning of the US-Israel war with Iran.
Iranian wanted by US for hacking arrested by FBI and Montenegrin police
Montenegrin police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested an Iranian national suspected of hacking attacks that damaged US infrastructure to the tune of $3.4bn, Montenegrin police said.
The 39-year-old man, with dual Iranian and Turkish citizenship, is sought by the Southern District Court in New York on charges including conspiracy to commit computer fraud, hacking, and identity theft.
He was arrested in the Adriatic coastal resort of Kotor, Montenegro’s police directorate said on Thursday.
“From 2013 onward,… he carried out massive hacking attacks … targeting more than 150 universities in the United States, causing damage estimated at over $3.4 billion,” it added in a statement.
The case will now go to a High Court judge in Montenegro’s capital of Podgorica for extradition proceedings, the police added.
The acquired data, as well as access to compromised university accounts, were used for the benefit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian entities, including universities, it said.
Soldiers wounded during the Iran war accuse Pentagon of downplaying their injuries
Two U.S. soldiers wounded in the war with Iran have accused the Pentagon of downplaying the extent of their injuries, according to a report.
CBS News has conducted interviews with Chief Warrant Officer Rodney Bearman and Sergeant First Class Cory Hicks, both of whom were injured when an Iranian drone hit their base at Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait on March 1.
The attack, which saw six soldiers killed, was part of the retaliatory strikes against U.S. and Israeli allies in the Gulf launched by Tehran in response to the launch of Operation Epic Fury a day earlier.
Bearman, 57, was left with shrapnel wounds and also suffered concussion, hearing and vision loss and damage to his lungs, according to medical records reviewed by the network, but the U.S. Army classified his condition only as “not seriously injured.”
Soldiers wounded during the Iran war accuse Pentagon of downplaying their injuries
Troops hurt in Iranian drone strike on military base in Kuwait accuse Army of misrepresenting the facts of the situation to their families, which officials denyArpan Rai26 June 2026 07:09
US-Iran agreement grants access to Tehran’s nuclear sites, IAEA chief says
The interim US-Iran peace accord gives inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog access to Iran, the agency’s chief said this morning, after Tehran indicated that key sites would remain off-limits until a final deal with Washington is reached and sanctions are lifted.
“There is an agreement and to comply with that agreement, the IAEA will have to have access and inspect,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said at a news conference in Japan.
“We hope to be there soon.”
Trump revisits Iran school strike months after attack, says ‘I don’t think it was us’
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that it may never be determined who was responsible for a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children on the first day of the Iran war, as questions continue over whether US forces were involved.
The 28 February strike in Minab, southern Iran, killed more than 175 children and teachers, according to Iranian officials, triggering international outrage and renewed scrutiny of the US military operation.
Trump, speaking to reporters, said the circumstances surrounding the attack may never be fully resolved.
“I don’t know that they are ever going to solve that problem,” Trump said, referring to questions over responsibility.
“I don’t know that they are ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it because there were missiles flying all over the place, and it’s horrible what happened but there were missiles flying all over the place,” he added.
Trump said he had not seen evidence proving the strike was carried out by US forces.
Trump shrugs off deadly Iran school strike as questions over U.S. role remain
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday it may never be known who was at fault for a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran on February 28Arpan Rai26 June 2026 06:03
Watch: Rubio dismisses UAE fears over Strait of Hormuz toll as ‘semantics’ despite threat to peace talks
Israeli troops fatally shoot a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man inside his home in the occupied West Bank, a relative said on Thursday.
The Israeli military confirmed the shooting and said the man had thrown objects at the soldiers.
Mustafa Al-Khatib, 32, was found dead in his bedroom in the West Bank village of Sarta, about 32 kilometres (20 miles) north of Jerusalem.
Soldiers had broken through the front door, according to Al-Khatib’s cousin, Amin Al-Khatib.
“I entered the house. They had broken the door,” Amin said. “He was lying in his bedroom. … We found him on the ground.”
The Israeli military said it was operating in the area when a man started to throw objects at the soldiers. It said troops fired warning shots before aiming at the man.
Video footage from inside the house showed ransacked cupboards and bloodstains on the floor.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said in a statement that Al-Khatib’s death brought the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank to 72 since the beginning of the year.
Rubio tells Gulf allies Iran deal will ensure their security and promises access to Hormuz
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Gulf allies on Thursday that any deal with Iran would take their interests into account, as he wrapped up a Middle East trip aimed at winning over regional partners with deep reservations about the preliminary accord.
Speaking at a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Rubio said Washington was seeking an enduring peace with long-time foe Iran that would not come at the expense of the security of allies in the oil-rich region, many of whom see the deal as too soft after coming under Iranian attack during the conflict.
Iran fought two of the world’s most powerful armies, the US and Israel, during the conflict and took effective control of the vital Strait of Hormuz, heavily disrupting oil flows and rattling global energy markets and the wider economy.
He told reporters that Gulf allies shared some very serious concerns and that they wanted to be informed of every step of the peace accord, which includes provisions on Hormuz.
In a joint statement later on Thursday, the US and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said a lasting peace would mean addressing Iran’s ballistic missiles, drones and support for proxy groups.
They also backed “free, unconditional, and unrestricted navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz without “any tolls, fees, or attempts to assert control.”
If Iran threatens or blocks ships in the strait, “then we’re going to have a problem,” Rubio said, having earlier told ministers that “no country on Earth has the right to charge for the use of international waterways” and that fees for shipping would never be part of any deal.
Trump says US to buy farm goods with unfrozen Iranian assets
Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States would soon buy wheat, soybeans and corn from American farmers using Iranian assets that have been frozen under US sanctions.
“We have a new market coming up, and that’s called The Lovely Country of Iran. It’s a beautiful place. Would anybody like to go there? They’re having a hard time with food and 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, and that process is going to be starting soon. It’s going to be big,” he said.
Arpan Rai26 June 2026 04:30NewerOlder