A clandestine attack on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz derailed efforts by Iranian pragmatists to end hostilities with the United States and repair Iran's struggling economy. President Masoud Pezeshkian was angered by the operation and confronted Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, who said he had neither authorized nor known about the strike in advance. Iranian forces fired on three commercial ships, setting a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker ablaze and damaging other vessels. The Supreme National Security Council, which plays a central role in war and negotiations, was also unaware, while a hard-line faction acted independently. The effort succeeded in part because Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, has remained unseen and unheard since taking office in March, with the authenticity of statements attributed to him questioned by officials, including Pezeshkian.