[Regnum] The United States has launched a series of powerful strikes against Iran. The country's Central Command announced this on July 8.
"The US strikes are a response to Iran's attacks on three commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz," X said in a social media post.
The US military said Iran's attacks threatened civilian crews, violated the security of international waterways, and disrupted the ceasefire.
On June 15, US President Donald Trump announced that the US and Iran had signed a memorandum to end the conflict. Negotiations on a basic agreement were expected to begin. The US lifted the blockade of Iranian ports, and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 20% of global oil exports pass, was expected to be restored. Iran, however, has repeatedly stated that hostilities must cease throughout the region, including in Lebanon.
According to Axios, US and Iranian officials planned to meet in Doha on June 30 to discuss the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. However, on the night of June 28, Trump announced that US forces had launched strikes on Iran in response to the ceasefire violation.
Earlier, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced strikes on American military infrastructure in Kuwait and Bahrain. These strikes, the IRGC stated, followed additional US strikes on several targets in Iran.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
A US official told Rooters that strikes targeted Iranian air defense systems, coastal surveillance systems, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and drone launch sites.
The strikes came shortly after Washington revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Iranian oil, raising pressure on Tehran as it negotiates with the US over a final settlement to the conflict.
"Iran’s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences," a US official told AFP.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, said the US-Iran
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memorandum of understanding was "entirely performance-based," warning that Tehran would see benefits only if it showed "good behavior."
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Oil prices rose more than 3% after the US announced the move.
WORK CONTINUES TOWARD FINAL AGREEMENT
A US official said earlier negotiators continued to work in good faith toward a final agreement with Iran. But control of the strait has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world’s most powerful military. Analysts say Tehran uses attacks on ships to underscore that leverage as it negotiates a long-term peace deal with the US.
Under the interim US-Iran agreement, the US Treasury issued a June 22 general license to allow the sale of crude oil and petrochemical and petroleum products of Iranian origin through August 21. In revoking that license on Tuesday, it gave Iran until July 17 to wind down any transactions.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the move as a breach of the framework agreement to end the war and said Washington would bear responsibility for the consequences.
"Iran is issuing a serious warning about the consequences of America’s breach of the treaty, and will take decisive measures to protect its interests and national security," the ministry said in a statement carried by official media.
Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
blamed Iran for Tuesday’s attacks on the vessels, including the huge Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, the Al Rekayyat, which reported being struck overnight by a drone that caused a fire in its engine room. The crew were safe and being evacuated.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador and handed him a protest note following the attack on the tanker, urging Tehran to "immediately cease any practices undermining regional security."
"We hold Iran fully legally responsible for this attack and for any resulting damages or repercussions," Qatar’s foreign ministry front man Majed Al Ansari wrote on X.
Iran voiced "dismay" over Qatar’s accusations in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA, calling the claims "unacceptable." The statement claimed was diligently fulfilling its commitments but asserted that commercial vessels faced risks for using routes not coordinated with Iran.
A Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, the supertanker Wedyan, was also damaged off Oman, maritime security sources said. Riyadh blamed Tehran for the attack, with its foreign ministry condemning "Iran’s targeting of the Saudi tanker Wedyan while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the targeting of the Qatari tanker al-Rekayyat."
A second US official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, said initial indications were that Iran had fired at three commercial vessels.
| More from the Times of Israel: |
The US military announces that it has completed a series of strikes in Iran that hit over 80 targets, describing the attacks as “an immediate response” to the latest Iranian strikes on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. According to US Central Command, the strikes targeted air defenses, command and control equipment, radar sites along the coast, anti-ship missiles and over 60 small boats belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with the aim of “degrading Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor.”
IRGC says it hit 85 US military targets in Bahrain, Kuwait in response to strikes
[IsraelTimes] Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it hit dozens of US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait overnight in response to US strikes, in a statement carried by state broadcaster IRIB.
“In an initial response to this aggression, the IRGC Navy and Aerospace Force carried out a joint missile and drone operation, striking 85 key US military facilities” in the two countries, while also shooting down an MQ-9 drone, the statement says.