DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump on Thursday said the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” threatening in a social media post to “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries, including the key Kharg Island, in the “not too distant future.”
The post come after the U.S and Iran traded strikes for a second day, pushing the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war. The American attack, which lasted into Thursday morning in Iran, appeared more intense and wider than the day before.
Iran released little information on the extent of the damage and said it fired back at Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, as it had a day before.
The U.S. military continued to enforce its blockade of Iranian ports, saying Thursday it fired missiles to disable a tanker attempting to transport Iranian oil. An Indian official said a U.S. strike on a different merchant ship earlier this week killed three Indian sailors.
It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which hit countries in the region that host American bases.
The new exchange of fire came as efforts to negotiate an end to the war appeared stuck, with U.S. President Donald Trump warning that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the U.S. attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire … meaningless,” without saying it was abandoning it.
Central to the negotiations is Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.
Iran announced Thursday that the strait was closed — but it was unclear what that meant since it has severely restricted traffic through the waterway since early in the war and only a trickle of ships have gotten through. The U.S. military’s Central Command disputed the claim — and Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. has undertaken a secret mission in recent weeks to sneak ships through the passage.
The two sides also remain at odds over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran insists is peaceful but which the U.S. and Israel fear could be used to build an atomic weapon due to its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The U.S. and Israel said a major reason they went to war on Feb. 28 was to ensure that Iran would never be able to do that.
The U.S. strikes Iran and Iran fires back at Gulf states
Central Command said its latest round of airstrikes came “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression” and targeted “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense sites.” It did not elaborate on the damage done by the strikes, which it said ended just before sunrise Thursday in Iran.
Explosions from the strikes echoed around Iran’s capital, as well as the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas along the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard later said sites hit included a manufacturing complex, a military barracks and a local Guard base outside of Tehran.
Kuwait closed its airspace for several hours because of the attack, but did not elaborate on any damage. Jordan said it intercepted 20 Iranian missiles fired toward an area that is home to a base hosting U.S. troops, though no one was hurt.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said an 11-year-old girl was hurt and cars and homes were damaged by debris from interceptions responding to the Iranian attack.
Meanwhile, Israel warned residents in the country’s north to seek shelter after the detection of suspected incoming fire from Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Iran-allied Hezbollah militant group.
Trump says the U.S. is sneaking oil through the Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s ability to control the Strait of Hormuz has proved a strong bargaining chip since the narrow waterway’s effective closure has severely disrupted the global economy.
Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. military has undertaken a mission since last month to sneak oil shipments past Iran’s forces in the strait, aided by the destruction of Iranian radar equipment.
Trump said as a result more than 100 million barrels of oil have evaded Iran’s chokehold. There was no immediate confirmation of that figure, which equals roughly five days of oil shipments through the waterway before the war began.
But the seas remain dangerous for mariners.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said Thursday that it struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker attempting to evade the American blockade with a shipment of Iranian oil. It said Hellfire missiles were launched to disable the M/T Jalveer late Wednesday after the ship’s crew failed to obey U.S. orders.
It’s the ninth merchant vessel the U.S. military says it has disabled since imposing the blockade in mid-April in waters off Iran. Two of those ships came under U.S. fire earlier this week.
Three Indian sailors were killed when American forces struck the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello on Tuesday, Indian Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal announced Thursday on X. The mariners had initially been reported missing.
U.S. Central Command said American forces issued warnings before firing on the ship, which it accused of trying to evade the blockade.
The leader of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, condemned the attack. India’s foreign ministry summoned a senior U.S. diplomat to convey its “deepest concerns” over the attack and formally protest the strike, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Big disagreements stand in the way of a quick peace deal
Trump suggested earlier this week that an agreement with Iran could be close — but the exchanges of fire have called that into question, and big differences remain.
The U.S. wants to see Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is a short technical step from weapons-grade levels.
Iran is refusing to give up the uranium and demanding relief from sanctions. It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final agreement is in place, something Trump rejected.
Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting between its ally Hezbollah and Israel. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing his goal of destroying the militant group.
A Qatari diplomatic delegation, negotiating in coordination with the U.S., left Tehran on Thursday morning after holding talks, according to an official with knowledge of the team who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the mediation. Pakistan, meanwhile, expressed deep concern over rising tensions and urged both Iran and the U.S. to adhere to the ceasefire.
