Tense as Iran Awaits U.S. Forces in the Strait of Hormuz

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it is waiting for U.S. forces to escort ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway where vessel traffic has been hampered by the ongoing conflict.

‘We are awaiting their arrival,’ IRGC spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said, as reported by Al Arabiya, on Saturday 7 March 2026. This came after the U.S. Energy Secretary announced that the U.S. Navy was preparing to escort ships through the strait ‘as soon as it is deemed appropriate to do so.’

‘We advise that before taking any decision, America should remember the fire aboard the supertanker Bridgeton in 1987 and tankers that have recently come under attack,’ Naini said, according to Iran’s state news agency, Fars.

The latest development, on Saturday morning local time, was that a tanker with the trade name Prima was struck by a ‘drone explosion after ignoring repeated warnings from the IRGC naval forces about the transit ban and the insecurity of the Strait of Hormuz,’ the IRGC said in a statement carried by Tasnim news agency.

Meanwhile, foreign ministers of the Arab League will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday 8 March to discuss Iran’s attacks on several member states of the bloc.

According to AFP on Saturday 7 March 2026, the Arab League’s Deputy Secretary-General Hossam Zaki said the meeting would be held via video conference. The emergency meeting was requested by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Jordan and Egypt.

The war continues to rage in the Middle East after United States and Israel carried out air strikes against Iran on 28 February. Iran has retaliated by launching attacks against Israel and US military bases in Gulf states.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit denounced the Iranian attacks, saying they were ‘highly condemnable’. He described Iran’s attacks on Gulf states as ‘not only a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter, but also an attack on the principles of good neighbourliness.’