The United States said it downed multiple Iranian drones targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz early Saturday, hours after both sides said a deal to end the Middle East war was closer than ever.
Issued on: 13/06/2026 - 07:57
4 min Reading time
The interception came after weeks of halting talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Pakistan, that have been marked by threats and exchanges of fire despite a fragile truce agreed in April. US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees operations in the region, posted on X that Iran had "launched multiple one-way attack drones in an attempt to strike commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz". "US forces have downed all of them in recent hours as traffic flow through the strait continues unimpeded," it said. CENTCOM added that the Strait of Hormuz -- a key maritime trade route for oil and gas from the Gulf -- "remains open for transit", despite an Iranian-enforced blockade since the start of the war. 'If the Strait of Hormuz were to remain closed, we would face a major crisis' Disagreements between the two sides have persisted, with Iranian state media publishing a breakdown of what was purportedly on the table that was at odds with Washington's account. "The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer," Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, wrote in a social media post, referring to the Pakistani capital that hosted previous US-Iran talks. Trump -- who on Friday morning accused the Iranians of negotiating in bad faith and misrepresenting the terms that had been agreed -- posted a screenshot of Araghchi's message on his own feed just hours later.
