Iran continued launching a “large number” of drones at merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz even after Washington and Tehran announced a memorandum of understanding, NBC News reported Wednesday night. According to the report, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps kept firing every night since the agreement was announced last Sunday.
An American official said the United States intercepted all of the drones before they posed any danger to commercial vessels, military ships, or personnel in the area. The report did not say whether any drones reached their targets.
The development comes as a draft of the deal, published Monday by the Saudi outlet Al Arabiya, said the United States would lift the naval blockade on Iranian ports within 30 days of the memorandum signing. In return, Iran would remove the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.
The draft said Iran would immediately take steps to restore merchant shipping between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to pre-war levels, while addressing technical obstacles and clearing mines.