US President Donald Trump said that Iran "will pay" after Tehran struck American sites in three countries in the region, the American newspaper "Washington Post" wrote in the headline, BTA writes in the press review.
Late yesterday afternoon Eastern American time, the US carried out strikes on "multiple targets in Iran", a statement from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said, without providing further details. According to semi-official Iranian media, explosions were heard in several cities in southern Iran.
"We are going to attack them and we are going to attack them very hard", Trump told reporters in the Oval Office before the resumption of strikes.
The exchange of blows in the style of "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" marks another escalation in the Middle East, where ceasefire agreements between the United States and Iran, as well as between Israel and Lebanon, appear increasingly unstable, threatening to return the region to full-scale war, notes the "Washington Post".
For weeks, Trump has claimed that he is close to concluding an agreement with Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and impose strict restrictions on Tehran's nuclear program. So far, however, the talks have not produced the "grand deal" he promised, and yesterday morning he seemed to admit that the two sides are not on track to reach an agreement.
This puts him in a delicate political position, as November midterm elections approach, gasoline prices are high, oil reserves are dwindling, and voters are increasingly unhappy with the United States getting involved in a preemptive war in the Middle East.
Trump's ability to use military force to solve his domestic political problems appears limited. The joint US-Israeli operation has severely damaged many of the capabilities of the Iranian military, and the US naval blockade is weighing on the Iranian economy. But Tehran has shown that it only needs a few mines and drones to disrupt maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and shake up global energy markets – which gives it leverage beyond its military capabilities, the American publication points out.
The United States and Iran have exchanged a new wave of strikes, the British newspaper "Financial Times" headlines.
After announcing the new wave of strikes against Iran yesterday in the late afternoon Eastern US time, CENTCOM later said that the strikes had ended and that "the strikes were directed against Iranian military surveillance installations, communication systems and Iranian air defense sites throughout the country".
In response, Iran's military command center, the "Khatam al-Anbiya Central Command", announced early this morning that the Strait of Hormuz would be immediately closed to all ships and that "all ships passing through the strait would be attacked".
Iran also said that it launched a drone strike against the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, targeting the communications and radar facilities of a "Patriot" system. CENTCOM denied earlier reports in Iranian media that a US warship had been hit.
In a subsequent statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its aerospace and naval forces had launched two waves of retaliatory strikes, "hitting and destroying 18 key US military targets at the "Ali as Salem", "Ahmed al-Jaber" and "Sheikh Isa" air bases. in Kuwait and Bahrain.
Kuwait has closed its airspace in response to the Iranian attacks, its Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement, adding that flights would be diverted to alternative airports.
The United States and Iran are trading blows again as hopes for a quick peace deal fade, the French newspaper Le Monde reported in a headline.
The latest exchange of blows between the two countries has sent oil prices soaring on international markets and comes after the United States accused Tehran of stalling negotiations.
"Are you trying to turn the sacred Strait of Hormuz into a dangerous place?! We will turn the region into hell for you," Majid Mousavi, commander of the IRGC's aerospace forces, said in a post on social media.
The Iranian navy said it had hit two ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, state television and the Mehr news agency reported.
The escalation has prompted international calls for restraint ahead of the World Cup, which the United States is hosting and Iran is participating in. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of the danger of a return to "full-scale war". Meanwhile, Iran's permanent representative to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani, dismissed Trump's threats, saying that "no lasting agreement can be reached through threats, intimidation or the use of force".
Iran also stressed that any agreement to end the war must include a ceasefire in Lebanon, which was drawn into the conflict when the Iranian-backed group "Hezbollah" fired rockets at Israel on March 2, Le Monde recalls.