Only about a dozen ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the first two days of the ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran, far below the normal traffic level before the war, marine transit data shows.
As part of the agreement, which President Trump announced late Tuesday, Iran would allow vessels to cross through the channel, which is a crucial waterway for shipping about 20% of the world’s oil supply.
On Wednesday and Thursday, at least 12 ships passed through the waterway, data from ship tracking company, Marine Traffic, shows. But that’s just a fraction of the 129 vessels that transited the strait on an average day from Feb. 1 to Feb. 27, according to data from the U.N.’s Trade and Development organization.
Only three of the ships that passed through since the ceasefire began were oil or chemical tankers, all passing on Thursday. All three are under U.S. sanctions for previously shipping Iranian oil. The rest were cargo ships.
Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement Friday that Iran hasabsolutely not carried out any launches toward any country during the ceasefire hours up to this moment.”
“In recent hours,” the statement continued, “various news agencies have published reports about drone and missile attacks on facilities in some countries along the southern shores of the Persian Gulf.”
The IRGC asserted that “if these reports published by the media are true, they are undoubtedly the work of the Zionist enemy (Israel) or the United States.”
The corps said if Iran does strike any targets, it would “openly and courageously announce it in an official statement. Any action not included in official statements of the Islamic Republic of Iran is unrelated to us.”
Kuwait accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday despite the ceasefire, as Saudi Arabia said recent attacks damaged a key pipeline in the kingdom. The accusation from Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry put new pressure on the ceasefire ahead of planned talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Saudi Arabia’s state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an anonymous official, said its crucial East-West pipeline, which carries oil out to the Red Sea and avoids the Strait of Hormuz, was damaged in the recent attacks.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied launching attacks on Persian Gulf states after Kuwait’s announcement.
Such an assault would mirror the continuing pressure campaign Tehran is waging on the U.S. and its allies, particularly amid efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Early Friday, Iran denied launching any strikes at all since the truce began.
Hezbollah says it has carried out a total of 19 strikes on Israeli targets so far on Friday.
The group said it launched 72 strikes on Israel on Thursday, claiming it targeted military positions, settlements and border areas as deep as 20 miles inside Israel
The chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Eyal Zamir, toured southern Lebanon Thursday and approved plans for the continuation of Israeli operations there, according to an IDF statement.
“The IDF is at war. We continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with great intensity,” Zamir said.
“The primary arena of our fighting is here in Lebanon. We continue to deepen the ground operations and continue to strike Hezbollah. This is a very powerful operation; our troops are operating along the front lines and at depth.”
Zamir said the assault by Israel and the U.S. against Iran had “cut off” Hezbollah “from its strategic artery in Iran.”
“The Lebanese government understands more than ever the magnitude of the problem posed by the presence of a radical, fanatical terrorist organization on its soil,” Zamir said.
He said the IDF’s mission “is clear — to “continue deepening the damage and to continue weakening Hezbollah.”
Read more about how Lebanon became a flashpoint in the war here.
Ukrainian military personnel shot down Iranian-designed Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing the operations as part of a broader effort to help partners counter the same weapons used by Russia in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy made his first public acknowledgment of the operations Wednesday in remarks to reporters that were embargoed until Friday. He said Ukrainian forces took part in active operations abroad using domestically produced interceptor drones proven in countering Iranian-designed Shahed drones used by Russia in Ukraine.
“This was not about a training mission or exercises, but about support in building a modern air defense system that can actually work,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine took part in the defensive operations before the tentative ceasefire in the Middle East was reached among Iran, the United States and Israel this week.
Zelenskyy didn’t identify the countries involved but said Ukrainian personnel operated across several nations, helping strengthen their air defense systems. He previously said that 228 Ukrainian experts were deployed in the region.
In exchange, Ukraine is receiving weapons to protect its energy infrastructure, along with oil, diesel fuel and, in some cases, financial arrangements, he said.
Zelenskyy said the agreements would bolster Ukraine’s energy stability and described the partnerships as something that would “be marketed” as Kyiv seeks to formalize and expand its defense export role.
“We are helping strengthen their security in exchange for contributions to our country’s resilience,” he said. “This is far more than simply receiving money.”
The foreign ministers of Pakistan and France held a phone call Friday morning in which they discussed the “continued efforts toward a diplomatic pathway for lasting peace and stability in the region,” according to a Pakistani readout of the call.
Both French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, who is also the country’s deputy prime minister, “expressed concern over serious ceasefire violations made in Lebanon and underscored the importance of full implementation and respect for the ceasefire,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
