Iran

A message attributed to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has promised “unforgettable lessons” to Washington during their escalating conflict. But it also homed in on another theme that tempered some of the fire of his warnings against the US, amid eight nights of renewed fighting between the two countries.

Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard from since being made supreme leader in March, said Iranians must uphold “sacred unity” as a fundamental imperative, particularly against the United States.

His message also stated that it was a duty for the Iranian population and officials to refrain from “division, political disputes, and increases in social differences”. Iran’s enemies, he said, likely referring to the US and Israel, “must not detect any sign of weakness from us”.

The call for national unity comes against the backdrop of events in June, when another Khamenei statement stirred debate and controversy among some of the most hardline supporters of the Islamic Republic regarding the recently signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US.

Khamenei said that although he “held a different view” about the agreement to pause four months of fighting, he approved it after President Masoud Pezeshkian, as chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, accepted responsibility for the deal.

This fired up unyielding supporters of the Islamic Republic who continue to take to city squares and streets at night with backing from armed security forces, angered about the deal.

Critics believe Khamenei was being forced into accepting a bad deal, and hardline clerical lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian even resorted to reading from classified material on live television in an apparent attempt to derail the arrangement. He was removed from the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee earlier this month.

Others went as far as accusing officials of treason, and the president and other officials linked to the deal were heckled during the funeral ceremonies for assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month.

The MoU has been suspended by Tehran but was already effectively on the verge of collapse after Iran and the US traded fire over control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz over the past week.

Projection of military and political unity

Since Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement on Saturday, other officials have strived to present a united front between armed forces and the political and diplomatic apparatus, each with their own views on the MoU.

Ali Abdollahi, the head of Iran’s wartime joint command, vowed that the armed forces will heed Khamenei’s directive for “sacred unity and national cohesion”.

But he also warned the US, which he referred to as a “big Satan and criminal enemy”, that it will face a “decisive and destructive response” for its recent attacks on Iran, which has seen bridges, roads, and other civilian infrastructure destroyed.

President Pezeshkian thanked the supreme leader’s “wise” message and highlighted the part where he urged “trust” in the heads of government, parliament and judiciary.

“Adherence to the means of sacred unity and refraining from division and discord is the key to victory at this historic juncture,” he wrote on X.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker who has faced harsh criticism from hardliners as chief negotiator in talks with the Americans, said following Khamenei’s directive is critical to Iran’s success.

“We must regard obedience to this religious and national decree of the supreme leader of the revolution as an important part of our historical role in national resistance and governance of the country,” he also tweeted in Persian on Sunday.

These messages appeared aimed at foreign audiences, coming shortly after senior US officials, anonymously briefing media in Washington, tried to blame the Hormuz escalation on an “errant” hardline faction inside Iran seeking to obstruct negotiations.

The state-linked Khorasan newspaper published an editorial on Sunday saying that Khamenei’s latest statement carried the message that “criticism is accepted, but never accusations” against officials.

“To those who claim to be revolutionaries, the supreme leader’s message was an ultimatum for you: Stop telling lies about the authorities,” the article read.

Iran’s military and political officials did not directly address the claim earlier this month, but released more statements proclaiming a unified view on how to address the conflict and regarding control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking during an interview released on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi continued to back a negotiated end to the war, which has seen Iran’s civilian infrastructure systematically targeted in US air strikes over the past week.

“If we had reached the [April] ceasefire 10 days earlier, we still had Larijani, Khatib, Asaluyeh and Foolad Mobarakeh,” the chief diplomat said in reference to assassinated security chief Ali Larijani, intelligence minister Esmail Khatib, and the country’s heavily bombed petrochemical facilities and steel plants.

But as tit-for-tat strikes continue between the two sides, there is no sign of both parties returning to the negotiating table.

July 19 (UPI) — The United Nations’ nuclear energy agency said Sunday it’s investigating Iran’s allegation that the U.S. military struck a nuclear power plant under construction as part of renewed fighting after the deaths of two U.S. service members.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it reached out to the Iranian government about the reported attacks on the Darkhovin Power Plant in southern Iran on Sunday morning. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said U.S. forces hit the site, which was under construction.

“The facility is in the very early stages of construction and contained no nuclear material when last visited by the IAEA,” the agency said in a post on X.

“While the reported attack is not believed to pose any radiological risk, [IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi] reiterates call for military restraint in the vicinity of all nuclear-related sites.”

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization first began work on the Darkhovin Power Plant in 2022, but construction didn’t officially start until March 2026, CNN reported, citing the World Nuclear Association.

The United States ordered fresh airstrikes on Iranian targets Saturday after two U.S. service members were killed in Iranian attacks Friday in Jordan. A third service member was missing.

The U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, warned U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the international airport or seaport in Aqaba, and all military bases in Jordan. Jordan’s military said Sunday afternoon it intercepted three Iranian missiles, and a third landed in a remote area.

Aqaba is situated on Jordan’s southern coast, within a few miles of the border with Israel. The Israeli military warned of potential spillover of Iranian attacks into Israel, The Times of Israel reported Sunday morning.

“There may be spillover into Israeli territory as a result of the fire,” the military said.

On July 14 the crews of the Mombasa and the Al Bahiyah found out. Two UAE-flagged tankers were hit by Iranian cruise missiles in the southern lane, inside Omani territorial waters, according to the Emirati defense ministry. An Indian sailor was killed and eight others were hurt, six Indians and two Ukrainians, and India summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador the same day. The Revolutionary Guard said the ships had run dark and ignored repeated warnings on a mined route. They had been following the other government’s instructions.

This is what a diplomatic technique looks like when it fails in public.

The technique has a name, and for fifty years the profession has been proud of it. Constructive ambiguity, Henry Kissinger’s phrase, is the art of writing a sentence that lets two enemies sign the same page while believing opposite things. Resolution 242 called for Israeli withdrawal from “territories” occupied in 1967, and the missing definite article has been argued over for fifty-nine years. The Good Friday Agreement left the sovereignty question deliberately unfinished. Ambiguity is not a drafting failure. It is often the only reason a war stops on the day it stops.

The Islamabad Memorandum, signed on June 17 by Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian and brokered by Pakistan, used the same tool. Read Paragraph 5 and you can watch it happen. Iran undertakes to use “best efforts” for the safe passage of commercial vessels “with no charge, for 60 days only,” and to open a dialogue with Oman on the strait’s future administration “in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states. ” Tehran reads that as recognition that Iran determines safe passage and will price it when the clock runs out. Washington and the Gulf states read best efforts as an obligation to facilitate passage and nothing more. Fourteen points. One waterway. Two meanings, both sincere.

Here is what the drafters missed, and it is the reason the strikes came back and the market is repricing this week. Constructive ambiguity works on questions that can sit still. A border can stay contested for six decades because a border does nothing in the meantime. Sovereignty over Northern Ireland is not exercised on Tuesday at 4 p.m. by a specific person who has to make a call.

A strait is not like that. Before the war, roughly 130 vessels crossed Hormuz every day. That is one ship approaching the disputed sentence about every eleven minutes, each one requiring somebody to physically wave it through or turn it back. Paragraph 5 does not get to be undecided. It gets decided, hundreds of times a day, by a coastal battery commander at Bandar Abbas and a watch officer on a destroyer, neither of whom has the luxury of interpretation.

The memorandum deferred two questions to a second phase. One of them, Iran’s nuclear program, can wait, because centrifuges do not require a daily ruling. The other cannot wait an afternoon. The drafters treated them as the same kind of problem, and only one of them is shooting. JD Vance, who runs the American side of the file, conceded the point on a podcast Wednesday without appearing to notice he had made it: the nuclear negotiations he leads have stalled over the strait.

Everything since follows from that. Six consecutive nights of American strikes. A naval blockade of Iranian ports has been back in force since Wednesday, with a Curacao-flagged tanker disabled by Hellfire missiles fired into its smokestack near Kharg Island. Iran’s ambassador filed a letter at the U.N. listing 42 American violations of a text Trump declared dead on July 8 and Tehran stopped complying with on the 13th, which tells you the memorandum has become useless as a truce and indispensable as a claim. Both capitals still cite Paragraph 5. Neither will be governed by it. They are both telling the truth about a sentence that says two things.

Trump’s week makes more sense in this light than in any other. On Monday he declared the United States “guardian” of the strait and announced a 20% charge on cargo passing through it. By Tuesday the fee was gone, swapped for promises of Gulf investment, after the International Maritime Organization said there is no legal basis for mandatory tolls simply to transit a strait and shipowners refused to play. On Thursday, IRNA reported that Tehran is preparing environmental compensation fees on transiting ships. Both governments have now tried to invoice the same water in the same week, and neither can collect. That is not a strategy, and it is not a neoconservative plot. That is what happens when the document you signed does not contain the authority you thought you had bought.

He said on Tuesday that next week come the bridges. The bridges came Friday. American strikes hit six of them around Bandar Khamir and a railway junction outside Bandar Abbas, cutting Iran’s main port off from the roads inland, and collapsed the control tower at Chabahar. Iran’s health ministry counts 38 dead and more than 400 wounded since the strikes resumed. Even Trump’s own deadlines are now being decided faster than he sets them.

The market is the only participant being paid to read Paragraph 5 honestly, and its verdict is arriving. Brent touched $86 on Tuesday, a one-month high, and held above $85 through a week in which the peace was formally alive. Traffic tells it better than price. Eleven ships crossed on the day Iran declared the strait closed. Seven crossed on Wednesday. Three crossed Thursday, the fewest since May, against 130 a day before the war. One ship every eleven minutes has become one ship every eight hours.

Rory Johnston of Commodity Context makes the harder point, and it deserves more attention than it has received. The stock cushion that absorbed the spring’s supply shock has been drawn down, which means the next shock will not be padded the way the last one was. The price is not high because the war is bad. It is high because the peace is unreadable.

Americans are paying in a currency the ceasefire never touched. Thirteen of the fourteen U.S. service members killed in this war died in March, before any truce existed. What has climbed through every pause is the wounded count, now 414, most of them with traumatic brain injuries. Truces here have reliably stopped the funerals and never stopped the concussions.

The mediators still working the phones in Islamabad, Doha, and Cairo do not need a grand bargain by August 16, when the memorandum’s sixty-day clock runs out and Iran has promised to start charging. They need something duller and much harder. They need to convert one sentence into a procedure: who physically waves the ship through, on whose radio frequency, under whose flag, and with what recourse when someone gets it wrong. Not sovereignty over the strait. Traffic control of it. The nuclear file can keep. The lane cannot.

Iran released an American detainee on Wednesday, which some in Washington read as a hand reaching for a rail. Nobody has set a date for the conversation that would matter. If none is set, the war will not restart in August. It will simply stop pretending to have paused, and a ship’s master off Oman will keep making a sovereign decision on behalf of two governments that refuse to make it for him.

Constructive ambiguity is a loan against the future. Most disputes let you pay it back slowly. Hormuz charges interest by the hour.

US Central Command says new strikes on Iran are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to choke the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States military said Sunday that it launched new strikes on Iran to “swiftly punish” the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for an attack that killed two American service members and left one missing and four requiring hospitalisation.

An area near Sirik in Iran’s Hormozgan province and Qeshm Island have been hit on the eighth consecutive night of US air strikes on Iran, according to Iran’s semi-official  Mehr and Tasnim news agencies.

The attacks happened early on Sunday, hitting Sirik at 1:30am local time (22:00 GMT, Saturday), and Qeshm Island at about 3:38am (00:08 GMT, Sunday) and again at 6:10am local time (0240 GMT) according to Iranian reports.

Tasnim also said the US military targeted a location near Shadegan in Iran’s Khuzestan province at 5:55am (02:25GMT Sunday).

The reports said there were no casualties and that residential and commercial infrastructure was not damaged in the attacks.

In a post on X, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the US military launched new strikes “designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”.

The post added that strikes were also in retaliation for Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks on a US base in Jordan that killed the two US service members on Friday.

US Central Command later said its strikes targeted “Iranian military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites.”

Since the war began in February, 16 US service members have been killed and more than 430 wounded.

The Tasnim news agency said there were reports of explosions in Qom, Arak and Behbahan that were later denied by local authorities.

The governor of Arak said that “the situation is completely normal and so far we have not had any reports of attack or explosion”.

Iranian retaliatory strikes

Tasnim news agency said the Iranian army targeted US military assets in two bases in Kuwait.

A statement from Iran’s military said, “In response to the repeated aggressions of the enemy”, the army targeted a US “ammunition depot at Al-Adiri camp and the Patriot radar and air radar” at the Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait.

“Unforgettable lessons”

Before the latest US strikes began, Iran’s supreme leader warned of “unforgettable lessons” if the US continued its attacks on Iran.

Initially, the battle focused on control of the Strait of Hormuz. But US strikes have now widened to include civilian infrastructure, including bridges and desalination plants for drinking water.

State-run news agency IRNA said the Bonji desalination plant was destroyed, cutting off water supplies to about 10,000 people, and a desalination plant on strategic Qeshm Island inside the strait was damaged.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state television the US is violating terms of the interim deal and “no longer implementing them”.

Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes in the past three weeks.

Late Saturday, the Iranian embassy in India named two girls – Sogand Dardmand and Fatemeh Zahra Akbari – who were among seven killed in a US strike on Bandar Khamir in southern Iran, which took place on Thursday.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said that the last eight nights of US strikes on Iran have caused “anger” and “frustration” among the populace.

“People don’t really know whether they are going to see the continuation of this confrontation, or how long it’s going to take, and also if there is a possibility for a diplomatic settlement to resolve all these complexities and find a long-lasting solution”, he said.

The US has launched a new wave of strikes on Iran after two American soldiers were killed by Iranian strikes in Jordan. President Donald Trump called it ‘swift punishment’, as Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro reports.

US president says death of soldiers in Jordan a ‘sad thing’ as US forces attack Iran for the eighth consecutive night.

Mojtaba Khamenei says Trump’s signature is ‘worthless’ and that ‘bullying’ is a core element of US foreign policy.

Iran’s supreme leader has warned that the United States will suffer “unforgettable lessons” at the hands of Tehran and its regional allies, accusing the US of repeatedly violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries.

A written statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei was read out on state television on Saturday, in which the supreme leader said Washington’s breaches of last month’s MoU showed that President Donald Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and invalid”.

“The repeated breach of agreements by the Great Satan vis-a-vis the accord has once again proven to all that the signature of the President of America is now utterly worthless and invalid, and that bullying, hegemonism and savagery are inseparable components of the American creed and doctrine,” the statement read.

“Now that the American enemy is seeking to foment war and suffer heavier costs and further humiliation, it should know that the dear nation of Iran and the Resistance Front hold unforgettable lessons for it,” it added.

The US dramatically escalated its attacks on Iran this week by targeting civilian infrastructure, including bridges, railway lines and water desalination plants.

Tehran has responded by successfully striking civilian infrastructure in Kuwait, with authorities there urging everyone to ration electricity.

The US-Israeli war on Iran, which began in February, is seen as existential by the country’s senior leadership.

Tehran has shown no sign of caving to the increasing demands from the Trump administration, as regional countries continue to push for an end to the conflict behind the scenes.

Khamenei said the US has “revealed its true face,” exposing its “deceitfulness, irrationality, unreliability and wickedness”.

He called on Iranians to trust the leadership to protect the country, urging people to remain “vigilant” and “active” as the fighting grinds on.

Reports have surfaced in recent days that the Houthis in Yemen could close the Bab al-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea in support of their crucial ally Iran. That would further destabilise global energy markets, increase inflation and apply additional pressure on Trump to halt attacks.

The war is deeply unpopular in the US and has inflicted economic harm on Americans.

The MoU mediated by Qatar and Pakistan and signed last month aimed to create the conditions to bring the war to a permanent end.

However, Tehran and Washington have since declared the accord “over” after accusing each other of violating it.

Tehran, Iran – The United States has reinforced its naval blockade on Iran’s southern ports, amid the escalating military confrontation between them.

The US blockade on Iran was first imposed in mid-April and remained for over nine weeks. It was only lifted after the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in June to end four months of fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran immediately began exporting tens of millions of barrels of crude oil, much of it stored on supertankers anchored close to its oil terminals. However, after the recent resurgence in military strikes over control of the Strait of Hormuz, Washington rescinded oil and banking waivers issued as part of the MoU and prevented vessels linked to Iran from returning to port to load more Iranian oil.

Since the MoU effectively fell apart due to recent strikes, US Central Command (CENTCOM) has redirected several ships operating in the Strait of Hormuz. It also launched a strike to disable the Curacao-flagged supertanker Belma, which had allegedly been transporting Iranian crude during the war.

Iran has also been accused of striking ships in the waterway, leading to the US bombing Iranian coastal areas.

Iranian authorities have acknowledged the previous blockade drastically reduced Iranian crude exports. Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said in a TV interview at the end of June that “we did not export even one barrel” during the blockade.

Energy analyst Hamidreza Shokouhi told Al Jazeera that the new US siege means that at least 1.5 million barrels per day of Iranian oil exports will be taken off the market. That has contributed to pushing oil prices up to around $90 per barrel and sustained conflict could cause further increases.

“That means more pressure on global strategic reserves, which have already been tapped during the war and are facing unprecedented pressure,” he said.

Washington’s insistence on vessels using the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz close to the coast of Oman for the duration of the MoU has contributed to the current military escalation, the analyst said.

Shokouhi noted that Iran responded to the siege by trying to ensure that no other regional country could export their oil via the strait, piling pressure on the US and its allies.

“When the US acts this way, Iran also moves in the direction of not prioritising the economy and using the leverage at its disposal,” Shokouhi said.

A broadening conflict

Seven nights of tit-for-tat strikes between the US and Iran have quickly escalated and intensified as the week progressed.

The attacks left a trail of destruction in both Iran and countries across the region, with Kuwait and Bahrain heavily targeted by Iranian missiles and drones in recent days.

The US military has also heavily targeted provinces across Iran, particularly areas in the south closer to the strait.

Civilian infrastructure – including bridges and tunnels, ports and dock facilities, power stations and water plants – have been systematically hit, along with military sites. Some have speculated that could be in preparation for a ground invasion of Iranian coastal regions.

The Aq Tekeh railway bridge in the northern Iranian province of Golestan was among the first targets to be struck by US forces last week after the fighting re-erupted.

Iranian authorities said damage to the bridge was quickly repaired, but the strike signalled US willingness to attack potential import-export routes to exacerbate the impact of the naval blockade.

Aq Tekeh is on the Gorgan-Incheh Borun line, which connects Iran to the east, including Turkmenistan, Russia and China. It is where food and other essentials are imported from Central Asia and Iranian goods are exported, such as iron ore and polyethylene.

Rising inflation

The previous US naval blockade had also significantly impacted goods and markets in Iran, making everyday life for over 90 million people more difficult.

Although there were no widespread shortages of staples, Iran’s inflation rate – already one of the world’s highest – surged. The price of some basic foodstuffs, such as eggs, chicken and cooking oil, has more than tripled compared to a year ago.

Price increases have also damaged other sectors of the Iranian economy and industries.

“Our sales are very inconsistent. The market is struggling to find prices, there’s too much instability and uncertainty about the future,” said Borzou, a merchant dealing in industrial motors and equipment at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.

“It looks like most distributors here are still tapping into imported inventories from before, we don’t know what to expect in a few months since many of these goods came through China and the UAE and not all can be imported through inland routes,” he told Al Jazeera.

Rial hits all-time low

There has also been intense pressure on the Iranian rial from the renewed military escalation and reimposition of the naval blockade.

The rial changed hands for over 1.93 million against the US dollar in Tehran’s open market on Saturday, the first day of the Iranian week, registering a new all-time low.

The Tehran Stock Exchange continued its downward trend over the past week, with its main index losing another 120,000 points or 2.4 percent on Saturday to stand at 4.77 million.

Iran’s armed forces have warned they will retaliate against any US strikes on Iran’s civilian infrastructure by attacking similar targets in regional countries hosting US military bases.

“Let’s not forget that the US and Israel started attacks against infrastructure, when they hit South Pars gas fields, Tehran’s oil depots and the petrochemicals in Mahshahr,” said energy analyst Shokouhi.

Utilising help from the Houthi group in Yemen, Tehran could also cause significant disruptions to shipping in the strategically important Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen’s coast – if US President Donald Trump realises his threat to hit more civilian infrastructure in Iran such as power plants and bridges.

“Trump’s actions over recent months, and particularly over recent days, have only made the situation more intractable and the outlook more uncertain. The current situation cannot continue for much longer, but it is broadening the scope of the conflict and that is concerning,” Shokouhi said.

July 18 (UPI) — The United States and Iran ramped up attacks on Saturday, while Israel and Lebanon did the same, as the Strait of Hormuz is still shut down.

The U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X that it targeted “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage and maritime capabilities. U.S. forces employed fighter aircraft, aerial drones, and warships in addition to other assets.

“CENTCOM continues to hold Iran accountable at the Commander in Chief’s direction while fully enforcing a naval blockade against Iranian ports,” it said.

Iran and the United States are enforcing blockades in the strait: Iran is preventing ships from passing, and the United States is blocking Iranian ships and ports. The strait is a vital waterway for oil and gas transport.

Iran’s state media reported Saturday that the country has suffered damage to bridges and roads in the southern part of Iran and that a water desalination plant in Jask was hit. A local official said that about 10,000 people are facing a water shortage.

Iran retaliated by hitting American allies. It heavily attacked Kuwait, including damaging a water desalination plant, vital to the desert country. Kuwait gets 90% of its drinking water from desalination. The attacks created a fire at the plant. An oil facility in Kuwait was struck, which created some injuries and “severe material losses,” Kuwait’s petroleum corporation said.

“The repeated targeting of these vital facilities reveals a systematic hostile approach targeting civilian sites and vital infrastructure that endangers the lives and safety of civilians,” the foreign ministry said.

Jordan’s army said Saturday that it had shot down 10 Iranian missiles with no casualties or damage.

“Air defense systems … intercepted 10 Iranian missiles that had entered Jordanian airspace and were targeting the Kingdom’s territory (which) were intercepted and shot down,” the army said in a statement.

Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, said, “[The] U.S. interpreted [memorandum of understanding] contrary to its terms and gained control over parts of Strait Hormuz to obtain what it couldn’t in the battlefield,” Moghadam posted on X. “It was obvious that the Iranian side would not accept this arbitrary interpretation which blatantly violated the MOU.”

“Now, the U.S. has started a war contrary to the terms of MOU and international principles destroying the infrastructures,” he said. “The international community is expected to strongly condemn this aggressive and reckless act.”

Meanwhile, Israel has ramped up its attacks on Lebanon.

An Israeli drone hit Nabatieh, Lebanon’s state National News Agency reported. Israeli war planes also hit a neighborhood in Mansouri in the coastal Tyre district just after two more planes carried out airstrikes in a different part of Mansouri, the news agency said.

An Israeli military spokesperson said the military had attacked militants “who posed a threat” in Nabatieh but that the Israeli military was “not aware” of any Israeli attacks in Mansouri on Saturday.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun left Saturday for Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump. He is expected to meet with U.S. officials and discuss the cease-fire with Israel and ways to boost security and stability with Israel. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

US marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit have released video showing them boarding M/T Wen Yao in the Gulf of Oman as part of the naval blockade against Iran.

July 17 (UPI) — Iran early Friday said it struck a U.S. special operations command center in southeastern Syria, escalating the war over the Strait of Hormuz, as the United States attacked bridges and other urban infrastructure in Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps described the strike in a statement as a “surprise attack” conducted in retaliation for the seven soldiers killed early Wednesday in a U.S. attack on Bampur, near Iranshahr in southeastern Iran.

The elite military unit claimed to have destroyed a U.S. radar system and several special-operations helicopters. It claimed to have killed “a large number” of Americans.

State-run media reported Iran also attacked U.S. bases and assets in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for the U.S. attacks hours earlier. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting claimed the United States destroyed five bridges around Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command said it had completed a “major wave” of attacks on Iran at 9:40 p.m. EDT Thursday. It said it hit dozens of Iranian military targets, including coastal surveillance and air defense sites, military logistics infrastructure and maritime capabilities.

Though CENTCOM made no mention of civilian infrastructure, President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned that the U.S. military would be ramping up its attacks through the week and would include civilian targets, but explicitly stating, “Next week comes the bridges.”

While the war began in late February, with the Trump administration seeking to dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons program and encourage regime change, this latest chapter is centered on the vital shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Trump administration is seeking to restore freedom of navigation through the chokepoint, while Iran is fighting to maintain the leverage afforded by its ability to restrict passage.

Early Friday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a tanker had been struck by an unknown projectile, causing minor damage to its port side.

“All crew are safe and accounted for,” it said.

The strike is at least the eighth attack on a commercial ship to attack in the Strait of Hormuz in a little over a week.

Tehran launched strikes against several countries across the Gulf and wider region overnight as the United States military raised its attacks on Iran.

Reports on Friday morning said that Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, as well as Jordan and Syria, had been forced to take defensive action against Iranian missiles and drones, amid a sixth night of US strikes on Iran.

The escalating US air campaign targeted civilian infrastructure in the south of the country, including telecommunications networks, railway systems, and the Bandar-e Khamir bridge in Hormozgan province, where local media reported on Thursday night that at least seven people were killed.

Tehran has justified its strikes against Gulf and other states by saying it is targeting US facilities in the region, insisting that Washington has used its bases there as launchpads to strike Iran.

In Qatar, which hosts major US military facilities, the security threat level was elevated as loud explosions were heard across parts of the capital, Doha, early on Friday morning.

Warning sirens sounded as residents received security alerts on their mobile phones. Qatar’s security threat level was raised again after the initial alert, but the situation later returned to “normal” after the threats were cleared.

The Qatari Ministry of Interior confirmed on Friday morning that a child who was injured by falling shrapnel during the assault is now receiving medical care. Earlier, Qatar rejected Israeli reports that it was planning to join military action against Iran.

Iran’s army said it targeted US helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft at the Sakhir airbase in Bahrain, according to a report from the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed early on Friday to have successfully targeted US monitoring assets in Oman.

In a statement, the military said it destroyed a US air control radar in the northern Ghanim region and a maritime surveillance radar positioned on rocks in the Strait of Hormuz.

The IRGC declared that the critical shipping waterway – which has become the key issue in the latest outburst of conflict between the US and Iran – “remains in the hands of the IRGC Navy’s admirals”.

The IRGC also reported that it hit a US military base in Kuwait early on Friday. It said that the attack targeted a missile defence radar, several key weapons depots and two HIMARS surface-to-surface missile launchers.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish counterterrorism forces reported that US coalition forces shot down eight explosive drones over the city of Erbil, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA). No casualties were reported.

The Jordanian army announced its air defence systems shot down three Iranian missiles transiting its airspace on Friday morning. No casualties were reported as engineering teams dealt with falling debris.

The IRGC also claimed to have attacked a US special operations command centre at the al-Tanf military base in Syria, according to a Tasnim news agency report.

Call to return to ‘hard-won’ deal

As hostilities between the US and Iran continue to escalate, threatening to spread across the region and curb the global economy, efforts to convince Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations are accelerating.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar called on Friday for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of dialogue, hoping to save the tentative ceasefire agreed upon last month.

Both countries have sought to mediate in the months-long conflict, which rekindled with renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz a month after the signing of a preliminary deal aiming to end the war.

That agreement was “hard-won”, Wang said, adding: “Peace is before our eyes, [we] cannot fall at the last hurdle and even more so cannot lose what we have gained.”

Iran has said 38 people have been killed, and more than 400 injured, in the US attacks since the two sides met in Switzerland on June 22 for talks to end the war through a 60-day negotiation period, the AFP news agency reported.

The US launched a new wave of strikes against Iran for a sixth night in a row, its military said, as the two sides battled for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the attacks were intended to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities”, before saying it had boarded a vessel as part of its blockade of the strait.

Iran’s state media reported US missiles struck close to the island of Qeshm, near the strait, as well as in Bandar Abbas and Bushehr – the site of a nuclear power plant.

In an apparent escalation, it also said two bridges in Hormozgan province had been hit. The BBC has verified an attack on one bridge to the west of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants if the country did not return to talks.

After Trump said in April that the US would bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran, including bridges and power plants, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said “deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime”.

The 1949 Geneva Conventions on humanitarian conduct in war prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians.

Centcom also said marines had boarded an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman as part of the renewed US blockade of Iran’s ports that began on Tuesday night.

It added it had “redirected 3 commercial vessels trying to run the blockade”.

According to Centcom, US forces disabled nine ships and redirected more than 140 under its previous blockade of Iranian ports between 13 April to 18 June.

As the the renewed hostilities further strained the preliminary deal to end the war, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump remained open to talks with Iran.

“The president will hold them accountable when they turn their back on the words that they state to the United States. But he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time,” she told reporters.

She said Iran has expressed it still wants to make a deal with the US, adding: “We’re talking to them, but again, the president is not going to allow them to fire on ships in the strait without paying a consequence for that.”

As attacks escalate, the Strait of Hormuz – a critical waterway off Iran’s coast that Tehran effectively blocked in response to US-Israeli strikes – has remained shut.

Earlier on Thursday, Tehran said it had struck US military bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, while the US said it had inflicted a six-hour wave of strikes on multiple locations in the strait.

Those exchanges came after Trump warned Iran it had “better behave” or face further military action should Iran not return to negotiations.

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state media that Tehran had “no reason” to abide by any agreement that did not benefit the country.

He added that Iran’s national security depended on maintaining what he described as “Iranian arrangements” in the Strait of Hormuz.

Moment a projectile struck a border area between Kuwait and Iraq, sparking a fire and sending thick smoke into the sky. The scenes emerged after Kuwait said it intercepted 32 hostile drones since dawn as Iran announced strikes targeting US assets in the country.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance has accused some members of the Israeli government of attempting to influence American public opinion to undermine Washington’s agreement with Iran, highlighting growing public differences between the two allies over Middle East policy.

Speaking on a podcast with Joe Rogan released on Wednesday, Vance defended the U.S.-brokered deal that ended last month’s conflict with Iran, despite criticism from Israeli officials and some U.S. lawmakers who argue the agreement leaves Tehran’s missile and nuclear capabilities largely intact.

Vance accuses Israeli officials of influence campaign

Vance said he was certain that some figures within the Israeli government sought to steer U.S. policy toward continuing military operations against Iran.

“I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to actually shift us away from that policy because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance said.

He added that although he maintains good relationships with some Israeli officials, others were trying to shape American public opinion.

“There are some people within their system that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely,” he said.

Defends Iran ceasefire agreement

Vance argued that the agreement reached last month was the right decision, despite criticism that it failed to place sufficient limits on Iran’s ballistic missile programme or provide a clear roadmap for dismantling its nuclear facilities.

The deal has also been criticised in Israel for restricting its military campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The vice president said attempts by foreign governments to influence U.S. policy are common and not unique to Israel.

“It doesn’t bother me that Israel tries to do this. It frankly doesn’t even bother me that Russia or some of these other countries do it,” Vance said.

“What does bother me is when those operations, those influence campaigns, actually affect American political judgment.”

Growing public differences with Israel

The remarks add to increasingly visible disagreements between the Trump administration and Israeli leaders over how to handle Iran.

In June, Vance sharply criticised Israeli opponents of the Iran agreement, arguing that President Donald Trump remained Israel’s strongest ally despite objections from some members of the Israeli government.

Israeli officials have argued that the agreement does not adequately address Iran’s nuclear ambitions or ballistic missile programme, concerns they say are widely shared across Israel’s political and security establishment.

Would US have entered the conflict?

Asked whether the United States would have become involved in the recent conflict with Iran without Israeli influence, Vance replied, “Yes, yes I do.”

He added that President Trump independently believes Iran should never obtain a nuclear weapon.

“I think the president, separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Why it matters

Vance’s comments expose unusually public tensions between senior U.S. and Israeli officials over the future of Middle East policy. They also underscore ongoing debate within Washington over the extent of foreign influence on U.S. decision-making and the long-term strategy toward Iran.

What to watch

The remarks are likely to draw scrutiny from both Israeli officials and members of the U.S. Congress as the Trump administration seeks to preserve the Iran agreement while managing its close security partnership with Israel. Further disagreements over Iran and regional military operations could test the traditionally strong U.S.-Israel alliance in the months ahead.

With information from Reuters.

The US military has continued strikes against Iran, hitting targets further to the country’s north as well as close to capital Tehran for the first time in the latest round of violence.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said early on Thursday it struck several military sites and assets in a bid to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten innocent mariners” in the Strait of Hormuz. The unit also said it disabled an oil tanker in the passageway.

At least 35 people have died, and more than 300 have been wounded in the latest wave of attacks that began last Wednesday after CENTCOM launched strikes on Iranian port cities close to the Strait of Hormuz. The US says the attacks are in retaliation for Iran hitting three commercial ships in the Strait.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it targeted US military assets in neighbouring Gulf countries.

Here’s what has happened in Iran and the US on Wednesday and Thursday and what both sides are saying:

Where did the US hit?

CENTCOM said in a statement early on Thursday that US air strikes targeted Iranian command centres, air defence sites, missile and drone capabilities as well as coastal surveillance facilities.

Multiple locations were hit, CENTCOM said, including Bandar Abbas on Thursday.

An earlier wave of strikes late on Wednesday hit coastal defence and cruise missile sites on Greater Tunb Island in a 90-minute bombing wave, CENTCOM added. The small, strategically located island sits near the Strait of Hormuz and is believed to hold a naval base, although details are not publicly available. It is also believed to be a point from which the Iranian military has disrupted shipping routes.

Meanwhile, Iranian media reported attacks in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, Sirik, Chabahar, Konarak, Rask, Khondab, Khorramabad and Semnan.

A hospital in Ahvaz was forced to evacuate 211 patients after reportedly being hit in the strikes.

Air defences were activated in Tehran and neighbouring Pakdasht and Parchin on Thursday.  The Iranian military said an MQ-9 drone was downed over the city of Andimeshk.

CENTCOM, in a separate statement on Thursday, said it was enforcing a naval blockade reimposed on Tuesday by disabling a “non-compliant” oil tanker that was attempting to sail towards Iran’s Kharg Island using Hellfire missiles.

How has Iran responded?

Iran’s army claimed retaliatory attacks on US military assets in Kuwait and Bahrain on Thursday.

Kuwait: The Iranian army said in a statement it targeted radar systems, the Patriot defence system and fuel tanks belonging to US forces at the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait. In an earlier statement, it said it hit a radar and gathering point for US soldiers in Kuwait, as well as US communications systems and fuel depots in Jordan’s al-Azraq airbase.

Bahrain: Drones also targeted US Super Hawk radars and Patriot defence systems at the Sheikh Isa airbase in Bahrain, the army added.

Jordan: Meanwhile, Jordan said it intercepted eight Iranian missiles on Thursday.

Iraq: Iraqi authorities said five drones attacked the city of Erbil, with two crashing near a US base and one shot down near the US consulate. Iran’s army has not claimed the attacks.

What are both sides saying?

Iran’s parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Ghalibaf, said on Wednesday Iran is prepared for a fuller military confrontation if the US does not live up to the terms of the interim deal. The country is fighting an “existential” battle, he added.

The IRGC has, meanwhile, threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the US’s naval blockade, which was reimposed on Tuesday.

“The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said in a statement.

Speaking at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, President Donald Trump reiterated his claims that Iran was pushing to strike a peace deal behind the scenes but did not provide details.

“They don’t like what we’re doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,” he said.

However, in a rare show of gratitude on Wednesday, Trump thanked Iran via his Truth Social platform for the release of Dena Karari, an American citizen the US says was “wrongfully” jailed in the country since 2024.

Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance, in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan released on Wednesday, defended the war on Iran but added that an agreement was needed between the two sides to end the conflict.

July 15 (UPI) — The United States attacked Iran on Wednesday, and Iran struck U.S. assets across the region into Thursday morning, marking the fifth straight day of strikes between the two nations as they fight over the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command launched two waves of attacks seeking to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten vessels transiting the vital chokepoint between Iran and Oman.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said early Thursday that it was conducting missile and drone strikes targeting U.S. assets at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait.

“Once again, we remind the honorable people of Kuwait that the United States is committing these crimes against Muslim Iran from your soil,” the elite military unit responsible for protecting Iran’s Islamic regime said in a statement.

The IRGC-aligned Fars News Agency reported early Thursday that U.S. bases and facilities in Bahrain, as well as in Kuwait, were being struck. It separately said it was attacking U.S. assets at the Al-Azraq Base in Jordan.

The extent of potential damage could not be independently verified. However, the Kuwait Army said its air defenses were confronting drone attacks, and the Jordanian Armed Forces said they downed eight Iranian missiles early Thursday. Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior urged residents to find shelter as sirens blared, suggesting an incoming attack.

CENTCOM said in a statement that its second wave ended at 9 p.m. EDT, hitting command centers, air defense sites, coastal surveillance facilities and missile ad drone capabilities.

In announcing the strikes hours earlier, CENTCOM had said they were “targeting Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.”

“The U.S. military is holding Iran accountable at the commander in chief’s direction,” the post said.

The U.S. attacks followed earlier strikes on Greater Tunb Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a key site for Iran’s coastal defenses and missile storage, during a 90-minute wave. The U.S. military also said it fired on the Curacao-flagged Belma vessel transiting international waters toward Iran.

CENTCOM accused it of violating a military blockade of Iran’s coast that Trump reimposed Tuesday afternoon to deny Iran maritime trade.

The IRGC said Ahvaz, a southwestern Iranian city, had come under U.S. attack, with missiles reportedly hitting near Baghaei Hospital, which treats children with cancer, requiring all but the most ill patients to be transferred to another medical facility.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf told state media that Iran had “no reason” to abide by any deal with the United States if it did not benefit from it, but he left the door open for possible diplomacy, stating: “We must utilize diplomacy and negotiation to achieve and stabilize our national interests.”

While the war began in late February with President Donald Trump seeking to dismantle Iran’s nuclear and conventional weapons programs while encouraging regime change, the current chapter of the war is over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump is fighting to restore freedom of navigation through the waterway, down which about one-fifth of global energy supplies flow. Tehran is fighting to preserve its ability to restrict passage through the chokepoint as leverage and has previously suggested it could charge vessels that transit it.

The U.S. attacks came as Trump told reporters that Iran’s leaders “better behave” on Wednesday, one day after he threatened that the United States would strike bridges and power plants if Iran did not return to the negotiating table.

“They want to settle so badly,” Trump said later Wednesday at a defense summit in Pennsylvania. “They don’t like what we’re doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them or we just finish it off.”

July 15 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday evening that Iran has freed a U.S. citizen detained in the country since 2024 as a “gesture of goodwill.”

In a social media post, Trump said Iran wrongfully detained the woman in December 2024.

“She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump wrote. He did not identify the woman but said the United States appreciated the gesture.

Lawyer Jared Genser said in a social media post that the woman is Dena Karari, a client of his trapped in Iran on “bogus charges.” Genser said Karari is safe and traveling back to the United States. He said her freedom wouldn’t have happened without “extraordinary and relentless efforts” by Trump.

Genser said in a further statement that Karari is a U.S.-Iranian citizen who ran a nonprofit called the Children of Mehr Foundation, ABC News reported. The foundation’s Instagram page says that it works to empower children “through education, creativity and opportunity.”

Genser said she visiting her family when she was detained and interrogated by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, suffering “enormous physical and psychological hardship.”

On Wednesday night, the United States military struck Iranian targets for the fifth straight day, with Iran hitting several U.S. military targets Tuesday in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Nightly strikes between the US and Iran have been the heaviest since the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement was signed a month ago. A former US ambassador tells Al Jazeera’s ‘This is America’ that Tehran has miscalculated in thinking that Trump would back down.

July 15 (UPI) — The United States struck Iranian targets again Wednesday evening, marking the fifth straight day of strikes and the second wave that day, as President Donald Trump said Iran’s leaders “better behave.”

U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that the later strikes “are targeting Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.”

“The U.S. military is holding Iran accountable at the Commander in Chief’s direction,” the post said.

The U.S. attacks followed early strikes on Greater Tunb Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a key site for Iran’s coastal defenses and missile storage, CNN reported. The United States military also said it fired on a ship that tried to violate its blockade of Iran’s ports and “redirected” two other commercial vessels.

Iranian media reported explosions in several areas, including Bandar Abbas and the city of Ahvaz. The state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said Shahid Baghaei Hospital, which is in Ahvaz and treats children with cancer, evacuated families after a U.S. projectile landed nearby, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, Iran said it struck U.S. military targets in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Iranian negotiator Bagher Ghalibaf told state media that Iran’s leaders had “no reason” to abide by any deal with the United States if the country did not benefit from it, but he left the door open for possible diplomacy. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, however, said Iran has no plans for negotiations.

Trump said Wednesday that Iran’s leaders “better behave” as he spoke with reporters, one day after he threatened that the United States would strike bridges and power plants if Iran would not negotiate again.

“They want to settle so badly,” Trump said later Wednesday at a defense summit. “They don’t like what we’re doing. We’ll find out whether we want to settle with them or if we just finish it off.”