Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, announced that U.S. forces had withdrawn from the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman, and the northern Indian Ocean, citing a 1,000‑kilometre distance from Iran’s borders. He said U.S. warships were now “100 per cent vulnerable” to Iranian strikes and that, for the first time since the conflict began, no American vessels were operating in the region. Meanwhile, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until conditions set out in a June interim agreement were met, as traffic through the waterway effectively halted after weekend attacks.
In Washington, Vice President J.D. Vance explained that B‑1 bombers had been moved from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom out of an “abundance of caution” following a suspected Iranian plot at the base. He also noted that the United States was wary of Iran’s longstanding record of terrorism. President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking with Armenia’s foreign minister, dismissed negotiations with the United States as meaningless. Trump added a new justification for the war, citing Iran’s alleged drug activities. The U.S. also reported that it had disabled Starlink terminals during January protests, a move the Iranian cyberspace chief said was a legitimate military target. Meanwhile, Vance said he had not yet found conclusive evidence linking Iran to the recent flydubai incident.
The conflict’s ripple effects were evident in the Arabian Sea, where Saudi‑backed coalition jets intensified air strikes against Iran‑backed Houthi rebels on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Yemeni government forces claimed to have seized Mocha and captured key positions along the Bab al‑Mandeb Strait, while a tanker was ordered to turn back by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard after an instruction from UK Maritime Trade Operations. At home, over 160 offshore oil workers in the United Kingdom threatened strike action over a pay dispute, a move that could severely disrupt UK fuel supplies amid rising diesel prices linked to global supply disruptions caused by the U.S.–Israel war against Iran and the Russia‑Ukraine conflict.
