UAE blames Iran for Hormuz tanker attacks

The United Arab Emirates accused Iran on Friday of attacking two vessels linked to its state-owned oil company in the Strait of Hormuz, intensifying a confrontation that has disrupted a key global energy route as the Trump administration says keeping U.S. fuel prices down is now its top goal in the Iran war.

The UAE Foreign Ministry denounced what it called “the hostile Iranian attack” on two vessels affiliated with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, and said no injuries were reported. ADNOC confirmed that “two of its vessels were attacked while transiting” the waterway Thursday evening and said the situation was “brought under control,” the official WAM news agency reported.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported two similar incidents Thursday involving drone strikes on tankers in the strait. In both cases, it said a tanker was struck by an uncrewed aerial vehicle while making an outbound transit, causing minor damage but no casualties or environmental impact. It was not immediately clear whether those reports referred to the ADNOC-affiliated ships.

The Strait of Hormuz has become the center of the conflict, with oil shipments sharply reduced through a route that NBC News reported carried about 20% of the world’s energy supplies before the war. Iran has imposed what CBS News described as an effective blockade, frequently attacking commercial ships and seeking to charge users for passage, a position the United States opposes. NBC News reported that traffic through the strait is now a fraction of the 130 to 140 vessels that typically crossed during peacetime.

Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said Thursday that “no vessel can safely transit the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s authorization and supervision,” according to Iran’s state-controlled IRIB news agency. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, accused the United States of “intelligence failures” and a “miscalculation” over Hormuz.

Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on Thursday that the administration’s “goal number one” is to “keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.” He added that “obviously goal number two is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.” Tehran says it does not want to develop one.

“I feel confident we’re accomplishing both of those goals, but it’s inherently an unpredictable thing because the Iranians themselves are unpredictable, and they sometimes don’t honor the commitments they’ve made to us,” Vance said.

Prices remain elevated. CBS News reported that West Texas Intermediate crude stood at about $81 a barrel for next-month deliveries as of 5 p.m. Thursday, up from less than $70 in February but below April’s level of more than $110. AAA put the average U.S. gasoline price at $4.07 a gallon, compared with $3.16 a year ago. NBC News reported that Brent crude was just above $87 a barrel, 45% higher than in January, and that gas was above $4 after being below $3 before the conflict.

The administration is also threatening new pressure on Tehran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax that the United States would apply “measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country” and said more announcements were expected next week. He described a combination of financial pressure and restrictions tied to Iranian ports.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the United States could maintain its naval blockade of Iran “indefinitely,” adding, “we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to.” President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States had “total control” over the strait and called the blockade of Iranian ports a “wall of steel.”

The U.S. military’s Central Command, meanwhile, rejected reports of dire conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed for months in the region. CENTCOM said service members remain “resilient and resolved” after more than 260 days at sea and said a sailor who fell overboard Aug. 3 was quickly recovered.