Israel says it killed Iran’s top naval commander in bid to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that Iran’s top naval commander, Alireza Tangsiri, was killed in an overnight airstrike, casting it as an effort to support the United States’ push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic.

The status of talks between the United States and Iran is unclear. Iran’s reported rejection of the U.S. proposal does not appear to suggest a total breakdown in negotiations. Tehran did not comment immediately on the Tangsiri strike, which it has not confirmed, and did not say if it had offered Washington a counterproposal.

Iran has previously offered its own terms for ending the conflict that include a demand that the United States and Israel pay compensation for war damage and recognize Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian response on Thursday comes the day after the U.S. proposal was passed to Iran through intermediaries. President Donald Trump began exploring the possibility of a negotiated end to the conflict in Iran on Monday after setting a five-day window for progress, set to expire Friday evening in the U.S.

The U.S. made no initial public response to the Iranian rejection. In a post Thursday morning on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Iranian negotiators “strange” and said, “They are ‘begging’ us to make a deal.”

At a televised Cabinet meeting later Thursday, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed transmission earlier this week of the 15-point plan, through Pakistan, and said it had resulted in “strong and positive messaging and talks.”

“We will see where things lead,” Witkoff said, “and if we can convince Iran that this is the inflection point with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction. We have strong signs” that an agreement “is a possibility,” he said.

Referring to his comment two days ago that Iran had delivered a “present” to the U.S. as a sign of goodwill, Trump revealed at the Cabinet meeting that Tehran allowed 10 Pakistani-flagged oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

Asked whether he planned to extend his five-day deadline for agreement to U.S. demands, Trump said, “I’m the opposite of desperate. I don’t care. … We have other targets we want to hit before we leave.”

Nearly a month into the war, weakening Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz — a critical conduit for global energy supplies — has emerged as a top military objective for the U.S.

In Thursday’s statement, Katz said the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ navy was targeted along with other senior naval commanders for their roles in using military force to close the strait. Katz also accused Tangsiri of “mining and blocking” the waterway.

The Israel Defense Forces said its air force killed Tangsiri in a precision strike in Bandar Abbas, a city on Iran’s southern coast. It was not clear whether it would weaken Iran’s ability to block the strait, through which roughly 15% of the world’s oil and 20% of its liquefied natural gas passes.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Islamabad was acting as an intermediary for indirect talks. “In this context, the United States has shared 15 points, being deliberated upon by Iran,” Dar said Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Thursday that Tehran and Washington were exchanging messages through intermediaries but said he did not consider that a negotiation, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

In a separate post, Trump lashed out at NATO countries for refusing to join the U.S. and Israel’s joint military offensive, in his latest expression of frustration after European leaders and other allies rebuffed his calls to help secure the strait. NATO allies have done “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING,” he said.

European leaders are reluctant to join a war they did not initiate and are still reeling from Trump’s efforts earlier this year to wrest Greenland from Denmark’s control. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that defense officials were considering plans to divert U.S. weapons for Ukraine to the Middle East, a further signal of the widening rift between Europe and Washington.

Tehran’s efforts to block maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz have caused oil prices to spike and fueled global anxiety over energy prices and supply chains.

As recently as Tuesday, a social media account appearing to belong to Tangsiri was warning vessels wishing to transit through the Strait of Hormuz that they required permission from Iranian authorities.

The 62-year-old was subjected to sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2019 in response to his threats to close the Strait of Hormuz. “Tangsiri sits atop a structure … that is responsible for the sabotage of vessels in the international waters,” Treasury officials wrote at the time. In 2023, the department again imposed sanctions against him for his chairmanship of an Iranian arms company that produced drones used by the IRGC. He had also overseen the IRGC’s testing of drones and cruise missiles, the department said.

On Wednesday, Araghchi questioned why Iran would allow “the enemy” to pass through the strait. “We have permitted certain countries that we consider friendly to pass through; we allowed China, Russia, India, Iraq, and Pakistan to transit,” he said, according to IRNA.

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• Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv, Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed.