Pentagon says Iran ceasefire continues despite UAE attack
"We expected there would be some churn at the beginning," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said of the US Navy-led operation to open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
WASHINGTON — The ceasefire between the US and Iran remains in effect, top Pentagon officials said Tuesday, despite an Iranian missile and drone attack targeting oil-producing facilities at the Emirati port of Fujairah overnight.
"The ceasefire is not over," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday, adding, "The president is going to make a decision whether … to escalate into a violation of a ceasefire."
He went on, "But certainly we would urge Iran to be prudent in the actions that they take, to keep that underneath this threshold."
Iran launched a drone and missile attack on the Emirati port of Fujairah overnight, causing a fire at an oil facility.
The barrage came several hours after the US Navy kicked off an operation to guide commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, defying IRGC threats.
Iran has attacked commercial vessels nine times since the ceasefire began, seized two container ships and "attacked US forces more than 10 times," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
Caine characterized the attacks amid the ceasefire as "low, harassing fire right now," and said, "Iran is grasping at straws to try to do something across the southern flank."
Earlier on Monday, the US Navy kicked off an operation to begin assisting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, without resuming offensive strikes on Iran's territory amid the ceasefire. Pentagon officials characterized the operation as strictly defensive, but have said the military commanders have authority to target any Iranian threats in the strait.
Iran fired ballistic missiles, drones and scrambled fast boats toward commercial ships attempting to cross the strait on Monday. US AH-64 Apache helicopters and UH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters destroyed and sank at least six Iranian small boats that the Pentagon's top commander in the region, Adm. Brad Cooper, said were threatening commercial ships.
Later on Monday, President Donald Trump threatened that Iran would be "blown off the face of the Earth" if its military forces target US ships.
"We're communicating, both overtly and quietly, to the Iranians to allow this defensive operation to happen on behalf of the world," Hegseth said Tuesday. "There are some actions the IRGC takes sometimes that are outside the bounds of what maybe Iranian negotiators would like," he added.
Following the attacks by Iran, the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X, "Events in Hormuz make clear that there's no military solution to a political crisis." Araghchi further warned the US and the UAE against "being dragged back into quagmire by ill-wishers."
