Iran-US war latest: Trump threatens to hit civilian targets in Iran as US resumes Strait of Hormuz blockade – UK Times

The US military this morning reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports over Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, sparking new strikes on nations hosting American forces as an interim deal to end the war further unraveled.

The US first imposed the blockade in mid-April. Then we lifted it in mid-June, a day after signing the interim deal that set 60 days for negotiations over issues like Iran’s nuclear program. Still, talks have stalled as fighting over the strait has intensified.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened this morning to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.”The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.

When US president Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade Monday, he also said he would impose a 20 per cent fee on ships passing through the strait. But he dropped the plan to collect fees hours before resuming the blockade, citing requests from allies in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Islamic ​Revolutionary Guard Corps said this morning that it had targeted what it described ⁠as command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet ⁠in Bahrain.

This ​was in ⁠response to what it said were ⁠US actions in the Indian ​Ocean ⁠and efforts ‌to control the Strait of Hormuz and restrict shipping ‌routes.

The Guard warned that ‌if Washington sought to block the region’s oil and ⁠gas exports by controlling maritime routes, other export routes serving US and allied interests could also be closed, saying regional energy exports would ‌be “for everyone or for ​no one”.

Bahrain’s home ministry this morning said air raid ⁠sirens were sounded and urged ‌residents ​to remain ‌calm and seek shelter.

Oil rose this morning as US president Donald Trump reimposed a naval blockade on all Iranian ports and Iran launched retaliatory strikes on US infrastructure in the ​region.

For the second straight session, Brent closed at its highest since 12 June and West Texas Intermediate at its highest since 15 June and rose further on early trade.

Brent rose $1.46, or 1.72 per cent, to $86.19 a barrel while WTI was up $1.11, or 1.4 per cent, to $80.40 a ​barrel.

Donald Trump has attacked former US President Barack Obama for his Iran Nuclear Deal when asked if Tehran was serious about negotiating peace.

“Do you believe the Iranians are serious about making a deal?” Fox News’ Trey Yingst asked Trump during an interview Tuesday evening, Washington time.

When the US president said Iran has “no choice” but to, Yingst asked, “Why haven’t they yet?”

“They never made a deal with Obama. What they did sign was a worthless piece of paper”, Trump said.

He said the Iran Nuclear Deal was a “road to a nuclear weapon, and what I have is a wall — there will be no nuclear weapon”.

The Iran Nuclear Deal, which Iran signed in 2015 and Trump withdrew from in 2018, restricted Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions.

Donald Trump has suggested that most of his administration’s goals for the Iran war “have been completed”.

“Your objectives are to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon, to keep the Strait [of Hormuz] open, and to degrade the Iranian military.

“Can those objectives be completed in an air campaign alone, or does this require a ground component?” Fox News’ Trey Yingst asked Trump during an interview Tuesday evening, Washington time.

“I think they are completed now, honestly”, Trump said. “If we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild what they have”.

Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has remained diminished as the US and Iran trade strikes.

The US Treasury Department has announced sanctions on Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani’s shipping network, which the agency said is a ”major force behind Iran’s oil exports”.

“This action is part of Treasury’s ongoing efforts to ramp up economic pressure on the Iranian regime after it resumed destabilizing attacks in the Strait of Hormuz”, the Treasury Department said in a Tuesday press release.

Chuck Schumer, a political rival of US President Donald Trump, has said “we won’t look away” after he and other Senate Democrats blocked a defense spending bill.

“Donald Trump is dragging America deeper into a war in Iran with no authorization, no plan, and no exit strategy.

“Democrats will not go along. Trump is expecting Congress to look the other way and ignore his illegal war, just days after he tore up his own ceasefire deal and dramatically escalated the fighting. We won’t look away”, the Senate minority leader wrote on X.

Earlier Tuesday, a motion to advance the $1.15 trillion annual defense authorization bill failed 50 to 46. It needed 60 votes to advance to the Senate floor.

Iran has launched attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait, the Associated Press reported.

The Gulf nations were attacked in retaliation for fresh US strikes and American forces reinstating a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign affairs ministry, has accused the US of war crimes after he said an environmental ranger post was targeted.

“In the early hours of Tuesday, the terrorist U.S. military attacked an environmental ranger post in the village of Seyed Jowzar, Hajjiabad County, in northern Hormozgan, and martyred 3 members of Mr. Javad Hasanzadeh’s family, the hardworking ranger.

“This is merely the latest example of America’s heinous war crimes over the past four and a half months,” Baqaei wrote on X.