Peace in the Persian Gulf appears no closer after president Donald Trump flatly rejected Iran’s response to a US peace proposal over the weekend, even as a rare transit by an LNG carrier offered a glimmer of hope that the Strait of Hormuz is not entirely sealed.
“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it – TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday, without elaborating on the substance of Tehran’s reply.
The rejection came at the end of one of the most violent weeks for commercial shipping since the conflict began on February 28, with US naval forces disabling multiple Iranian tankers, Iran seizing a vessel of its own, Chinese-owned tonnage coming under fire for the first time.
On May 8, US Central Command announced that a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet operating from USS George H.W. Bush had disabled two empty Iranian tankers – the VLCC Sea Star III and the suezmax Sevda – after firing precision munitions into their smokestacks as the vessels attempted to breach the American blockade of Iranian ports in the Gulf of Oman.
Iran’s elite IRGC responded with a formal warning to the US Navy to stop attacking Tehran’s commercial vessels or face reprisals against American maritime and onshore assets across the Middle East. Within hours of the warning, a US-owned bulk carrier was struck by an unknown projectile 23 nautical miles northeast of Qatar at 03:01 UTC on May 10. UKMTO said a small fire broke out but was successfully extinguished with no casualties reported. Maritime security firm Vanguard Tech identified the vessel as the Marshall Islands-flagged Safesea Neha – the second vessel owned by its New Jersey-based operator to be hit during the conflict, following the attack on the tanker Safesea Vishnu in Iraqi waters on March 12.
Also on May 8, Iranian naval forces seized the tanker Jin Li – a 228 m, Chinese-owned vessel formerly known as Ocean Koi operating under a false flag after being de-registered by Barbados due to sanctions. Intelligence firm Windward detected the Jin Li performing active location manipulation at the time of seizure, with its AIS reporting a position in the Gulf of Oman that did not match its actual location. Windward described the seizure as likely performative, given the vessel’s established history within Iran’s trading ecosystem, and suggested it may have been intended to project regional authority rather than reflect genuine interdiction.
China has also been directly drawn into the conflict’s maritime dimension. Beijing’s foreign ministry confirmed that the product tanker JV Innovation – identified by maritime security agencies as a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel carrying 22 Chinese crew – caught fire on deck on May 4 near Mina Saqr off the UAE coast, marking the first known attack on a Chinese-owned vessel since the war began. The tanker remained operational with all crew safe.
Amid the carnage, one development offered cautious encouragement. The Qatar LNG carrier Al Kharaitiyat successfully crossed the Strait of Hormuz on May 9, apparently following Iran’s newly mandated routing close to Larak Island – north of the traditional traffic separation scheme. The vessel subsequently went dark on AIS before reappearing on May 10 in the Gulf of Oman, headed for Karachi.
It is the first LNG carrier to transit the strait since the conflict began.
Defence ministers from more than 40 nations are meeting today to discuss plans to protect shipping in the strait once hostilities cease.
“The question remains how to reopen the strait, and fast. Nuclear talks will simply have to wait,” argued broker Hartland Shipping in its latest weekly report, noting that global oil inventories are being drawn at 8m barrels per day, with lost demand running at 3m barrels per day.
“It is estimated that this can be sustained for a maximum of three months before shortages hit and reduced consumption is mandated by forced efficiencies, energy rationing, rising prices and more demand destruction,” Hartland noted, adding: “Trump will not admit it but knows that he needs to solve this problem of his making, and get it open, even with a bad deal, claimed as good, if necessary.”
