An army cadet walks past a billboard bearing anti-Trump messages, including the phrase 'We Kill Trump,' at Islamic Revolution Square in Tehran, Wednesday.Vahid Salemi/The Associated Press
The U.S. conducted a new wave of strikes against Iran’s coastal defence systems and missile sites on Wednesday after reimposing a naval blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran threatened to shut off more regional energy exports.
The daytime strikes mark the latest escalation of attacks and counterattacks launched by the two sides as they vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the war.
“At 6 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) today, U.S. Central Command forces began launching a wave of strikes against Iran,” the U.S. military said.
“The strikes are designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that U.S. projectiles had hit a location on Iran’s Hengam Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command said the military had attacked coastal defence systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Iran’s Greater Tunb Island, and had completed the wave of strikes within around 90 minutes.
That followed seven hours of strikes on Tuesday in which the U.S. said it had hit dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas.
In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday it had struck U.S. military targets in the region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.
It also threatened on Wednesday to shut off more regional energy exports, saying the U.S. “must brace for the closure of all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies.”
An interim ceasefire deal in the conflict signed last month was meant to lead to further negotiations including on Iran’s nuclear program, and to a permanent truce, but a return to talks has faltered.
“We have no plans for negotiations at the moment and are focused on defence,” Tasnim news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.
He said the interim ceasefire was a set of mutual obligations, and as long as the U.S. breached its commitments under the deal, Iran would refrain from fulfilling its own.
Hostilities have intensified since Iran said late on Saturday it had closed the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. says Iran had attacked seven commercial ships over the last week, leaving nearly a dozen crew members killed, missing or injured.
The U.S. says Iran had attacked seven commercial ships over the last week.Stringer/Reuters
‘End of America’s evils’
The war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, triggered Iranian attacks on Gulf states that host U.S. bases and caused major disruption to global energy supplies, raising fears of a surge in inflation.
Oil prices fell back on Wednesday, after settling on Tuesday at a new one-month high.
Analysts say that while the U.S. and Iran have gone back to sparring as they did before the interim ceasefire deal was signed, they are unlikely to return to full-scale war, though a risk of further escalation remains.
They say Iran is signalling it may use its Houthi allies in Yemen to shut Bab el-Mandeb, opening a new front against Washington and putting two of the world’s most vital energy arteries at risk.
Oil prices rise as hostilities worsen in the Middle East
Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which Saudi oil exports and a substantial share of global shipping pass. Some shippers have been returning to Red Sea routes after being deterred by Houthi attacks linked to the Gaza war that began in 2023.
As a result of this year’s Iran war, Iran has been trying to assert permanent control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and to impose fees on vessels passing through it, in what would be a major shift of the balance of power in a region where the U.S. has long acted as guarantor of security.
The IRGC said on Wednesday the Hormuz Strait would stay closed until what it described as “the end of America’s evils.”
Shipping data showed an uptick in Iran-linked ships passing through the strait before a new U.S. blockade on Iranian ports took effect. The U.S. said on Wednesday it had redirected two commercial vessels attempting to breach the blockade.
Two Canadian ships anxious to leave Persian Gulf after nearly five months trapped
Trump threatens to hit energy targets
U.S. President Donald Trump, who faces domestic pressure to avoid a full return to war, on Tuesday threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations.
“I’ll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we’ll hit energy targets,” Trump said.
U.S. negotiators had been in touch with their Iranian counterparts to tell them “you better make a deal,” Trump added.
As tensions escalated, Trump on Monday floated the idea of a 20 per cent fee on shipping through the strait. On Tuesday, he scrapped the idea and said, without providing details, that he would instead seek investment deals with Gulf states.
The war has killed thousands of people and displaced millions, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, where conflict restarted between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said at least 30 civilians had been killed in recent days due to the U.S. strikes on southern Iran, state media reported on Wednesday.
Iran’s army said at least seven active-duty and conscript personnel were killed in overnight U.S. strikes on the Bampur military base in the country’s southeast.
A man rides past the rubble of buildings damaged in Israeli strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, July 6.Mohamed Azakir/Reuters
Lebanon, Israel conclude talks on ‘pilot zones’
Lebanon and Israel concluded U.S.-brokered talks in Rome on Wednesday, with a U.S. official saying they had made progress on implementing a plan that could see Israeli forces begin to withdraw from some parts of southern Lebanon within days.
The two longtime foes held ambassador-level talks at the U.S. embassy in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday – their sixth round of face-to-face negotiations since a new war erupted on March 2 between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, triggered by the wider regional conflict.
Under a U.S.-brokered June 26 framework deal, Lebanon and Israel agreed to implement a “pilot zone” project that would see the disarmament of militant groups – an apparent reference to Hezbollah – as well as the deployment of Lebanese troops to the south and the progressive withdrawal of Israeli forces still occupying Lebanese land.
In written comments distributed to journalists, a U.S. official described the two days of talks as “productive and positive.”
“We agreed on the structure and guidelines for the pilot zone process, to be finalized and implemented in the coming days,” the official said.
The official said talks would move to a technical phase to implement the framework deal and reach a “comprehensive agreement between Israel and Lebanon.”
There was no immediate comment from either Lebanon or Israel on progress made in the talks.