THE United States and Iran each claimed today to control the Strait of Hormuz after exchanging further attacks, threatening any diplomacy to end the war.

The latest flare-up was sparked by an Iranian strike on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

Iran insists it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees under an interim peace deal reached last month. Washington and others dispute that and the US military has tried to establish an alternative route outside Iranian control.

Calling into Fox News today, US President Donald Trump declared that “we’re taking over the strait.” He also asserted that “everything was agreed to” in an 11-hour meeting on Sunday, but that Iranian negotiators had called back later and suggested changes. He did not elaborate.

Iran and the US are nearly halfway through the 60-day period in which they were supposed to negotiate a permanent end to the war and an agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme. Instead, a series of attacks over the strait have raised fears of a return to all-out war.

Oil prices jumped nearly 5 per cent today before falling back.

The US military said it had struck dozens of sites, including air defence systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment and small boats. It insisted that Iran did not control the Strait of Hormuz.

Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote on X that Tehran would fight for the strait.

“We defend it so that in the future, for the passage of our ships, we are not forced to pay tribute to the enemy!” he said. “Retreating from this vital matter has no place in the mind of any friend of Iran.”

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the strait was “our territory and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it.”

Missile alert sirens sounded three times in Bahrain, where the US navy’s 5th Fleet is based, and Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage.

In Jordan, which also hosts US forces and aircraft, the military said it had shot down four Iranian missiles that “resulted in zero casualties or material damage.”

Iranian authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and said at least two people had been killed, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Semi-official Iranian media also reported strikes in the eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province.