On Thursday, May 7, Iran accused the United States of violating the ceasefire after American strikes on “Iranian military installations” in response to an attack on three American ships.
Americans officials told the Wall Street Journal that the strikes targeted Iranian drone launch sites, cruise missile sites, coastal defense missile sites, and radars. They hit military sites on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Bandar Abbas and Garuk, two port cities along the maritime passage.
According to Iranian state media, Tehran fired on warships in response to a previous American attack on an Iranian oil tanker. The U.S. had fired on the ship on Wednesday to immobilize it, accusing it of trying to breach the American blockade.
On Friday morning, the United Arab Emirates activated their air defense against drones and missiles fired from Iran, reported The Middle East Eye. The UAE Ministry of Defense confirmed in a statement that the sounds heard across the country were due to the interception of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones by the UAE air defense systems.
Trump downplays the situation as a “little love tap”
Donald Trump sought to minimize the incidents on Thursday, saying, “It was just a little love tap,” during an interview with ABC.
“They played around with us today. We hit them back. They played around. I call it a trifle,” the American president also told other journalists, adding that, in his opinion, the ceasefire was still in effect.
“These new clashes ‘revive uncertainties about the two countries’ ability to reach a negotiated agreement,'” emphasizes the Washington Post.
Just after the American shots on Thursday, President Donald Trump called on Iran to quickly sign an agreement in a message posted shortly after on his platform Truth Social, warning of being struck “much more violently in the future” if not.
Claiming that these incidents “do not constitute a violation of the ceasefire is very difficult for the Iranians to accept,” said Al-Jazeera’s Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington-based think tank. According to the analyst, Iranians may see these American attacks as an attempt to create in the Gulf “what Israel has done in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, where the ceasefire is essentially unilateral.”
