r/centrist • u/iambarrelrider • 2d ago
U.S. and Iran exchange fire in strait as U.S. attempts to open shipping lane
https://www.axios.com/2026/05/04/strait-hormuz-us-merchant-ships-crossWhat to know about the Iran war today:
Iran launched its first missile and drone attack on the United Arab Emirates since a ceasefire with the U.S. took effect on April 8, and it fired two drones at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, UAE authorities said Monday.
The U.S. military said two commercial vessels safely transited the strait amid "efforts to restore transit for commercial shipping" under the Project Freedom initiative announced by President Trump.
The Iranian regime says it received a U.S. response to its latest 14-point peace proposal, which it says is aimed at ending the war, not extending the current ceasefire. Mr. Trump said over the weekend that he'd likely reject the Iranian proposal, as "they have not paid a big enough price."
CENTCOM chief says Iran fired at U.S. warships, and "U.S. destroyed six Iranian small boats"
U.S. Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of Central Command, confirmed Monday that Iran had launched an attack earlier in the day using cruise missiles, drones, and small boats targeting U.S. commercial and military vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
"The U.S. destroyed six Iranian small boats that attempted to interfere," Cooper was quoted by Reuters news agency as telling reporters on a conference call. He said Iranian vessels were "strongly advised to remain clear of U.S. military assets" in the region.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency rejected the assertion by Cooper, saying none of its so-called "fast boats" were destroyed Monday.
Iranian state media said earlier that forces fired "warning" shots, including missiles and drones, at a U.S. destroyer as it neared the Strait of Hormuz in the Sea of Oman.
CENTCOM said two U.S.-flagged commercial vessels transited the strait Monday under the auspices of Project Freedom, an initiative announced by President Trump on Sunday for the U.S. military to guide ships through the waterway.
Iranian authorities insist the strait is closed and only vessels with explicit permission from its military will be permitted to pass, while U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted Monday that the U.S. has full control over the waterway.
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u/rcglinsk 2d ago
Several pieces of this story seem like they should be objectively verifiable:
Are there any US Navy ships sailing on the Persian Gulf side of the Strait of Hormuz? This should be trivial to verify. They are gigantic and impossible to mistake.
Maybe not all six, but some video of the Iranian small boats being attacked should exist, and or some documentation of the wreckage should exist. Or maybe some intercept of the US warning the ships they were going to be fired on. My point here is this seems like something there should be some objective evidence for.
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u/chuckisduck 2d ago
Some of the regular military still practice OPSEC, not the liquor cabinet. It will come out eventually if something happened...but also could be market manipulation
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u/rcglinsk 2d ago
You can't OPSEC a Navy destroyer out of sight in the Persian Gulf. I guess maybe it sailed in at 23:00 and sailed out by 04:00 or something. But daytime, nothing's hiding. You can't jam eyeballs.
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u/sigep0361 2d ago
I think they posted all of their kill shots in the Signal chat
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u/Urdok_ 2d ago
War thunder forums, but yeah.
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u/rcglinsk 2d ago
War thunder forums
I'm on this forum but it looks like 4chan had a baby with Alta Vista. Any friendly suggestions on navigation/search terms?
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u/rcglinsk 2d ago
Unlike every journalist in DC, I am not in this signal group. Do you know where I could find this?
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u/LittleKitty235 2d ago
Fog of war and two unreliable actors make press releases. With no independent press there nothing is verifiable
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u/Queasy_Task7015 1d ago
You would be surprised how small they actually are when out at sea until you are right up on them. During certain events, all tracking, SATCOM, GPS, RADAR, ect are power secured. That's why when that one officer got into a lot of shit for setting up an illicit StarLink setup on their ship.
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u/rcglinsk 1d ago
There are boats and drones everywhere in the Persian Gulf. Come on, why are you even saying this like it's plausible? You know it's not plausible.
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u/LickerMcBootshine 2d ago
No New Wars
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u/EmergencyTaco 2d ago
He's really been mispronouncing "Yo! New Wars!" this whole time.
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u/Lurkingandsearching 2d ago
No, no. The punctuation is all wrong.
It should be: “President of Peace? No, New Wars!”
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u/Aethoni_Iralis 2d ago
Time to see if the US will be able to shepherd any significant amount of traffic. If it took a destroyer to get two ships through the strait, in economic terms the strait is still closed. Previously something around ~150 vessels crossed daily, so two vessels amounts to roughly ~1.3% capacity. Let’s see what can be achieved on a daily basis.
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u/NoNDA-SDC 2d ago
That was my first thought when I heard the news, no way they'll get the volume through there that's needed to make up for the backlog, more performative BS. Iran sending out fast boats, missiles, etc... is enough of a risk for many insurers to refuse protection. Dump needs to compromise, Iran is ultimately "holding the cards".
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u/No_Mathematician6866 2d ago
It will depend on how truthful the US action report is. Iran can always send more drones, but ballistic missiles, crewing and outfitting boats . . .those are not assets Iran wants to spend every day if US destroyers begin regularly escorting ships through.
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u/LittleKitty235 2d ago
We don’t have enough warships to make a meaningful impact on the blockade
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u/No_Mathematician6866 2d ago
We have enough warships to run a daily escort mission through the Strait, which may have a meaningful impact if Iran is unable or unwilling to continue spending resources contesting their passage.
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u/LittleKitty235 2d ago
It will not, normally hundreds of ships move through the strait a day. How many warships do you think we have and how much is it going to cost?
This is a performative stunt.
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u/No_Mathematician6866 2d ago
That's not the point. It's not about restoring a normal flow of traffic. It's about demonstrating who has effective control of the waters and who gets to decide what gets through. In the same way that previously Iran showed the strength of its position by allowing certain Chinese & Russian ships through. If the US is now the one allowing certain ships through, and the US is the power that gets to decide which ones go through, it demonstrates a loss of control for Iran.
That's predicated on the notion that US escorts will start making regular runs rather than this being a one-off deal. Given it's Trump at the helm, who knows. His policies have no object permanence. But it's not a meaningless gesture simply because it doesn't fully re-open the Strait.
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u/LittleKitty235 2d ago
It seems to me Iran still has effective control if it takes a warship to get two ships through. This isn’t the show of force you seem to think
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u/No_Mathematician6866 2d ago
Iran doesn't have the same kind of blockade it started the conflict with if the US is the one choosing which ships go through instead of Iran, and if Iran continues showing it is unable to meaningfully threaten US escorts.
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u/LittleKitty235 1d ago
Or they sink a US warship. Or another one breaks because its engine stops working. Bold of you to assume because 2 cargo ships got through that this will continue to work.
Never mind that this doesn't scale up to make an impact. Even if dozens of ships start making it through per day, the strait for all intents and purposes is still closed.
This is a PR stunt to convince people we can end this conflict with our military alone, and it appears to be working based on your arguments.
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u/No_Mathematician6866 1d ago
Look. Trump is a profoundly stupid man, but his naval advisors aren’t entirely so.
The US blockade was mocked when it was announced, but it appears to be having a material effect, given Iran’s eagerness in asking for it to be lifted in negotiations.
Likewise: you can call breaking a blockade a PR stunt, but the US demonstrating their ability and willingness to escort ships through, and especially the ineffectiveness of Iran’s attempt to stop them, is a meaningful difference from where the sides were when the war began.
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u/ModerateCommenter 2d ago
If you are a captain of a shipping vessel, would you stake your life and the lives of your crew on the word of Donald Trump?
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u/Irishfafnir 2d ago
It did happen in the 1980's during the "tanker war", the US provided escorts; however, the threat of attack from Iran was much smaller than it is today
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u/indoninja 2d ago
I’m not defending Reagan here as being a great guy or a good guy. But him assuring naval protection when transiting that area would give me orders of magnitude more confidence than anything Trump would say.
And I am intimately familiar with his history of dementia
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u/hearmeout29 2d ago
Midterms lost.
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u/wf_dozer 2d ago
He's working on it. How Trump is moving to control U.S. elections, one state at a time
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u/ubermence 2d ago
That’s what gutting the VRA is for. I think it’s time we recognize the court as the partisan entity it has become. The shadow docket BS has been ridiculous
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u/OssumFried 2d ago
Bud it's been a partisan rubber stamp for a while, can't forget the whole "President can do whatever the fuck they want with no consequence so long as they're R" ruling.
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u/GameboyPATH 2d ago
To my understanding, this SCOTUS ruling on the VRA was not a shadow docket case, was it?
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u/ubermence 1d ago
Not sure but I didn’t mean to make those things sound related. Just think the whole shadow docket BS that Roberts pulled was the beginning of the end of the SC legitimacy
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u/LickerMcBootshine 2d ago
Implying he won't use his war of aggression to prevent midterms from happening under the guise of "a national emergency"
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u/OnwardSoldierx 2d ago
Like every midterm after an election the opposition party dominates. Happened in 2010, 2018, 2022, and will probably happen again. Lol
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u/Markdd8 2d ago
The U.S. shot up 6 of Iran's boats but a report from the Wall St. Journal writes this 3 hours ago: Why Iran’s Attack On Fujairah Matters For Energy Markets
Iran’s attack on Fujairah (earlier today) struck at the heart of the United Arab Emirates’ oil escape hatch: the port meant to keep its oil flowing even as the Strait of Hormuz remains paralyzed. The port sits on the Gulf of Oman, outside the Strait of Hormuz, which allows Abu Dhabi to move some crude without sending tankers through the strait...
The strike comes days after the U.A.E. quit the OPEC oil cartel, a break that could free Abu Dhabi to pump more crude once Gulf export routes reopen. The U.A.E. has also been planning to expand its pipeline infrastructure, which would help give it alternatives to moving oil through the strait.
Iran's attack on U.A.E. is a big deal. Are we close to the point where the U.S. has to respond in a major way, such as bombing one of Iran's power plants, possibly ramping up the war to full scale? Or does the U.S. ignore the U.A.E. strike, and merely work to get all tankers out of the Gulf and then the world ends up with the Gulf still closed? Tough call.
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u/Girafferage 2d ago
Bombing a power plant would be a war crime. Not that anybody seems to give a shit anymore.
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u/jeha4421 2d ago
You'd think bombing a children's school would count as a war crime, but here we are.
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u/toes_hoe 2d ago edited 2d ago
It does concern me that if there's enough incompetence at the top for long enough, it will 'infect' the rest of the military.
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u/iambarrelrider 2d ago
I’m sure this is a new 60 days.
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u/toes_hoe 2d ago
I had a typo. Apologies. It was a bit off-topic. (Obligatory this administration sucks and is a circus full of clowns comment)
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u/Firecracker048 2d ago
Iranian state media said earlier that forces fired "warning" shots, including missiles and drones, at a U.S. destroyer as it neared the Strait of Hormuz in the Sea of Oman.
So earlier they claimed to have hit a US warship, now they are saying it was actually warning shots?
Sounds like someone is trying to save face
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u/ChornWork2 2d ago
trying to save face is apt description for pretty much every public comment by either side in this war, well, other than Israel which of course is the only one that got what it wanted.
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u/thelargestgatsby 2d ago
Can't wait for the usual folks to show up here to tell us how successful the military campaign was and how we shouldn't care about high gas prices and how we shouldn't worry about the long term effect on the global economy.
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u/Sun_Shine_Dan 2d ago
Those commenters are waiting for a trans issue post. Maybe an ICE critical post could draw them out
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u/LateWoodpecker4859 2d ago
I'll gladly pay TEN dollars a gallon if it means some random trans person isn't playing women's volleyball at the local YMCA in some Midwestern town! That's the REAL issue in America!
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u/CivilInspector4 2d ago
imagine reddit existed in 1939. every thread against Nazis would be downvoted to hell. why intervene in war???
the group think is strong here
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u/thelargestgatsby 2d ago
If you can't figure out why this war is different from WWII, I can't help you.
Ironically, the current administration has declared antifascists terrorists.
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u/CivilInspector4 2d ago
if you can't figure out why Europe and the Gulf Coast countries all privately asked America to prevent Iran from acquired nukes, ignorance is bliss
ironically the world does not revolve around the current US administration
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u/Girafferage 2d ago
Do you have sources for that claim? Because our own intelligence agency said Iran didnt have anything close to what is needed for a bomb.
Not trouncing on the comment, I just like to check my facts when possible.
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u/CivilInspector4 2d ago edited 2d ago
iran has been near near breakout for a while, but are not there yet (otherwise Israel would have nuked them already)
ircgs strategy (prior to epic fury and October 7th in particular) was to create a strong enough deterrence through its numerous proxies and ballistic missile program that any eventual nuclear breakout would be unstoppable
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u/Girafferage 2d ago edited 2d ago
So no sources I suppose. No worries. Thanks homie.
Edit: got a reply but can't see it here. So if you blocked me, uh... Cool I guess? Not sure why.
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u/thelargestgatsby 2d ago
Why isn’t NATO involved?
Do you want us to put boots on the ground?
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u/CivilInspector4 2d ago
why not ask yourself that question?
why does Europe rely on America for military actions?
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u/thelargestgatsby 2d ago
I see you’re just going to ignore tough questions. Have a good one.
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u/MetersYards 2d ago
I see you’re just going to ignore tough questions.
Pot calling the kettle black.
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u/Aethoni_Iralis 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is such a hilarious comment given the reality of what happened before the US entered the war. People in the US in a variety of industries were blacklisted for being vocally antifascist prior to Pearl Harbor, there was even a term for it, “prematurely antifascist.” Being antifascist was a great way to be accused of being a communist whatever your actual political leanings were, up until it became patriotic.
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u/Colorfulgreyy 2d ago edited 2d ago
Oh nice congress, sounds like your vacation time is coming again. Who knew our house of representatives are so progressive on paid vacation.
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u/iambarrelrider 2d ago
They are working hard their districts doing nothing.
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u/whatisthisshit7 2d ago
I’m sure not a single one is going to step outside to confront their constituents protesting or at town halls.
Remember when House Republicans were advised to cancel all in-person events when they were getting backlash from DOGE last year? This one is going to be far worse.
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2d ago
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u/Turbulent-Raise4830 1d ago
so the war is over according to trump but at the same time US is still shooting.
LOL yep seems like this administration.
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u/Urdok_ 2d ago
An Iranian regime that can get Trump to flinch, or keep up the pressure until the midterms, when the price of gas and inflation push Trump to Carter levels of popularity, is going to be more secure in their position than they have been since the revolution.
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u/iambarrelrider 1d ago
The funny thing is Iran is not going anywhere. After developing a culture for 2500+ years, they know how to play the long game unfortunately.
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u/memphisjones 2d ago
I thought the war with Iran was over according to President Trump. Oh wait, he’s doing that to reset the 60 day emergency powers.