The American military launched strikes against “multiple” targets in Iran for the second straight day after President Donald Trump accused the country of dragging out talks on an interim peace deal.
US Central Command said on X that it had begun “additional self-defense strikes” at 5:15 p.m. New York time on Wednesday. About four hours later, in another post, Centcom declared the operation complete and that military surveillance systems, air defense sites and communication systems were the targets.
“US Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to US forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” Centcom said in the statement.
Trump said in a Fox News interview he had spoken with top Iranian officials Wednesday and they had asked him to stop the bombing. He said it would stop shortly, but added the US would hit Iran again tomorrow if its leaders didn’t sign an agreement, Fox News reported.
The attacks, which followed strikes on Tuesday in retaliation for the downing of a US Apache helicopter, underscored Trump’s growing impatience that the two sides have so far failed to reach an agreement.
They also offered fresh evidence that a ceasefire agreed upon in April had all but collapsed, even though the US and Israel haven’t returned to the intensive bombing campaign that marked the early days of the conflict.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing a military source, said before the strikes began that the country’s armed forces were “fully prepared” for fresh attacks and had the ability to hit additional American targets.
State-run Press TV reported that the Strait of Hormuz has been completely closed to all types of vessels, including commercial ships, citing Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said it struck two vessels attempting passage through the strait, Press TV reported.
Centcom rebutted Iran’s claim that the strait was closed in a post on X, saying that “commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz tonight.” Iranian news organizations said officials in Tehran denied direct talks with the American president.
Trump said 49 Tomahawk missiles were used to hit targets inside Iran, Fox News reported.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid cited an unnamed US official in a post on X who outlined military targets for Wednesday’s strikes, including air defense systems, radars and drone command and control units. The Iranian Foreign Ministry accused the US of hitting civilian infrastructure in strikes earlier this week.
After the Centcom announcement that the wave of strikes had been completed, Brent crude Oil pared its advance to 1.7%, trading around $94.68 a barrel.
The recent hostilities mark the most intense clashes between the US and Iran in weeks. A further escalation risks derailing intermittent, indirect talks between Tehran and Washington.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations in his first term, expressed skepticism in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday that negotiations would succeed. “Iran was never going to do a deal,” she said.
For months, Trump has vacillated between threats of intensified attacks and boasting that a peace deal is within reach. Yet neither scenario has materialized and the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil and other commodities, has remained largely closed despite American efforts to ease Iran’s chokehold.
Trump earlier Wednesday posted that the US military had supported the passage of “more than 200 commercial ships” through the key waterway, resulting in “more than 100 million barrels of oil” making it to market. He went on to claim the US controls the strait, “not Iran.”
Before Trump spoke, a White House official said talks were continuing but vowed that the US would exert maximum pressure until a deal is reached. The semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported that a Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss the diplomatic process to end the war.
“I think the war hasn’t really stopped,” said US Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii. “There’s no real evidence that a deal is in there.”
This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.