The United States and Iran each asserted Monday they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war.

The attacks, sparked by Iran striking a container ship Sunday in the strait off the coast of Oman, again underlined that the waterway that once saw a fifth of the world's traded crude oil and natural gas pass through it remained the key issue in negotiations. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf has seen shipping disrupted since the start of the war as Iran maintained a chokehold on it by attacking commercial vessels around it, intimidating shippers.

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Iran and the U.S. are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war. Instead, it has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait and its future, worrying world leaders the Iran war fully could resume.

 A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,  United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.


U.S. says it strikes dozens of targets in Iran

The U.S. military's Central Command described its forces as hitting dozens of sites in the strikes Monday, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment and small boats.

 The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade,  Central Command said.  Iran does not control it. 

The European Union's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for the strait to be open as it was before the war.

 The Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, freedom of navigation has to be respected,  she said.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country's theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, sharply rejected America's statement.

 The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its il

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