The United States launched a fresh salvo of strikes against Iran early Tuesday, marking a new escalation in the resumption of hostilities, even as US President Donald Trump said a deal with Tehran was still possible.
“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight, and we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday.
Oil prices shot up more than nine percent over fears of renewed conflict.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced strikes had begun at 2045 GMT, the third consecutive night of attacks.
“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said.
Early Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates said Iran had attacked two ships in the vital waterway, killing one crew member and wounding eight others.
The oil-rich UAE is a top US ally in the region and has reported multiple missile and drone strikes from Iran.
“The Ministry of Defence announces that the national tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah were targeted by two Iranian cruise missiles while transiting the southern shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz, within Omani territorial waters,” the Emirati defence ministry wrote on X.
That reported attack came after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday announced new strikes on Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Oman.
– US Congress notified –
Trump formally notified Congress last week that the US had resumed military conflict against Iran, the White House confirmed to AFP, giving the Pentagon an additional 60 days to operate in the region without congressional approval.
Trump also threatened to destroy Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried nuclear site near Natanz where Western intelligence suspects Iran is building an undeclared enrichment facility.
“Tell the Iranians to be ready. Let them know we’re coming (and) there’s not a damn thing they can do about it,” he told Hewitt.
CENTCOM, following Trump’s orders, announced it would reimpose a blockade on Iranian ports beginning at 2000 GMT on Tuesday.
In a post on Truth Social, the president declared the United States would be “known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT'” and levy a 20 percent fee on all cargo shipped through the waterway.
While Iran’s ports would again be blockaded, Trump said “all other countries will have fair and open use of the strait.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi immediately mocked Trump’s toll threat, writing on X that “POTUS is absolutely right” that whoever guarantees safe passage should be compensated — but that Tehran would charge less.
“20% is of course too much,” he said.
Washington has vehemently opposed Tehran’s desire to charge tolls in the strait, which international law generally forbids.
– ‘In crisis’ –
Despite all signs to the contrary, Trump said Monday that a deal with Tehran to end the Middle East war was still possible.
“Yeah, I think a deal is possible. Sure, I do,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We had a deal with them two days ago and then they said ‘Oh we can’t make that deal. We have to negotiate it further.'”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said earlier Monday that the June memorandum of understanding that formed the basis for the negotiations and lifted the US blockade was “in crisis.”
Baqaei said Iran would ignore its obligations under the deal if the Washington did the same, but added that Tehran was continuing talks with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman to prevent further escalation.
Analyst Bader Al-Saif said the escalating attacks would merely delay a permanent agreement.
“Both sides want to end the impasse on their own terms, and they are increasingly finding it difficult to do so. Hence the return to and increase in the scale of attacks,” said Al-Saif, an associate fellow at Chatham House.
– ‘Act of war’ –
Iranian state media reported deaths in the latest US strikes, which it said targeted large areas across the south and west.
At least four explosions were heard Monday east of Bandar Abbas, which sits on the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported, citing a reporter in the port city’s province.
At least 25 people have been killed in Iran since hostilities resumed Wednesday, according to an AFP tally based on Iranian announcements.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had struck US military targets and bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait, state media reported.
Iran insists it only targets US interests in the Gulf, but the spokesman for its military command said any collaboration by Gulf countries with the United States would be considered “an act of war.”
