(July 9): The US military struck Iran for the second straight day, an escalation of violence that threatens to strain an already fragile ceasefire.
“At the direction of the commander in chief, US Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” Centcom said in a social media post, citing attacks on vessels in the waterway. “The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway.”
The attacks came just hours after President Donald Trump at the Nato summit in Türkiye said the US would probably target Iran again. The US launched attacks on Tuesday and revoked a waiver allowing new sales of Iranian oil in response to attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz that the administration blamed on the Islamic Republic.
Brent crude rallied for a third day, climbing above US$79 a barrel before paring gains as the latest strikes stoked fears the conflict could disrupt shipping through the waterway.
Trump told reporters on the flight back to Washington that “they hit, we hit back much harder”. Asked if a full-scale military campaign would resume, Trump said, “I don’t know”, but it would be won “very quickly”.
He added that while the Iranians wanted to reach an agreement, “I just don’t know if they’re worthy of making a deal. I don’t know that they’re going to honour the deal.”
See also: Trump says US ceasefire with Iran is ‘over’ after strikes
The US strikes have focused on Iranian air defence systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites and anti-ship missile capabilities. The US military also attacked two railway bridges in northern Iran with cruise missiles as part of the strikes on Wednesday, a reporter with Axios said on X, citing a US official.
An Iranian adviser to the country’s supreme leader said in a post on X earlier Wednesday that Tehran would deliver an “immediate response” to the US after Trump’s threat. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had hit military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain after the Tuesday attacks.
Kuwait’s army said in a post on X early Thursday that the country’s air defences were “confronting hostile missile and drone attacks”.
See also: US strikes Iran and blocks oil sales in new test of ceasefire
The US and Iran have accused each other of violating a memorandum of understanding that established a short-term truce and set in motion a 60-day period for talks on a broader peace deal.
Trump has also threatened to resume a blockade of Iranian ports and said the US could escalate its military campaign by bombing infrastructure such as desalination and power plants. The president earlier Wednesday said he thought the ceasefire between the US and Iran was “over”, in comments that spooked financial and energy markets. Oil jumped after Trump’s remarks about the truce, which sent stocks and bonds lower.
Trump also said he would not stop negotiators from continuing to engage and, when asked if he thought the war would resume, said “I don’t think it’s going to start again.”
Still, the latest violence casts further doubt on the prospects for negotiations. Talks between the US and Iran are currently suspended as Iran conducts a weeklong mass funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on the first day of the conflict in late February.
Issues to be resolved in discussions include management of the strait and the release of billions of dollars of frozen funds to the Islamic Republic, with talks on Iran’s nuclear programme to follow. Little headway has been made on any of those topics.
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