(National Times)- The United States and Iran traded strikes on Thursday for the second day running as Washington and Tehran battled over the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The latest round of attacks, which the US said was carried out in response to Tuesday’s assault on three cargo ships transiting the strait, came hours after US President Donald Trump said he believed an interim ceasefire with Iran to be “over”.
US forces said the latest attacks against Iran were aimed at “their ability to threaten the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”, citing recent strikes against commerical ships the waterway.
“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The US strikes rattled several cities along Iran’s southern coast and left some areas without power. The US Central Command said later they had struck approximately 90 military targets.
Iran responded with a second day of attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, both home to US military bases.
Kuwait’s Defence Ministry said it was intercepting missiles and drones, while Qatar briefly issued an “elevated security threat” alert before later giving the all-clear.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Thursday they had struck US military bases in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to the fresh American strikes, in a statement carried by state television IRIB.
The Guards said they struck “key infrastructure and facilities” at US bases in Arifjan and Ali Al Salem in Kuwait, and Juffair and Sheikh Isa in Bahrain with missiles and drones.
They also warned their responses would expand to other bases across the region if US attacks were repeated.
Control of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war, has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world’s most powerful military. It should be noted that Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks.
“The US has yet to learn that bullying and breaking its commitments no longer come without a cost. Let me be clear: If you strike, you will be struck back,” Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, wrote on X.
“The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened only under Iranian arrangements, not through US threats.”
The latest exchange of strikes appeared to dim hopes of turning a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on June 17 into a permanent deal to end the war, which began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
Asked before a Nato summit in Turkey on Wednesday whether the MoU over, Trump said: “It’s a very interesting question. To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them.”
“If we make a deal with Iran I’m not sure that will stick,” Trump later said. “I found them to be very dishonourable people.”
But Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to escalate military action before backing off, said he did not expect a return to full-fledged war, and that it was not clear whether the negotiations on reaching a permanent deal would continue.
Also on Wednesday, Trump said he did not think the war would restart: “Anything that happens is going to be over very quickly … and will only make it safer, including for oil.”
Major Iran port hit by strikes
Iranian media reported strikes primarily along Iran’s southern coast, from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman.
Among the locations hit were Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities on the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Konarak and Chabahar, neighbouring coastal cities near Iran’s border with Pakistan.
Electricity had been restored to most areas of Chabahar after strikes knocked out power for some in the city, Mehr news agency reported, citing the local utility. Media also reported that a maritime traffic control tower in Chabahar was hit.
A firefighter was killed in a strike on the airport in the southeastern city of Iranshahr, state media reported. In northern Iran, a US attack hit a railway bridge near the town of Aqqala, according to Press TV.
Prior to the fresh US attacks on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei had said US strikes had violated the memorandum by challenging a clause that “emphasises the Islamic Republic of Iran’s responsibility in determining arrangements for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz”.
A spokesperson for parliament’s National Security Commission had said options for retaliation included withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), changing Iran’s nuclear doctrine, and closing the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, another crucial global shipping route.
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, Iran’s mission to the UN accused the United States of “blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and its international obligations” and said its attacks violated the memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries.
