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Strikes after ceasefire ends
The U.S. carried out another round of strikes on Iran on Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump said the recent Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz signaled the end of the ceasefire.
“US carries out another round of strikes on Iran after Trump says ceasefire is over US carries out another round of strikes on Iran after Trump says ceasefire is over DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U”
The U.S. military said the strikes were intended to “further degrade” Iran’s ability “to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait, and it said it was holding Iran accountable for “unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews.”
Iranian state media reported explosions in Bandar Abbas, Sirik, and Bushehr, and a day earlier Iranian state television said eight members of the Army’s air and naval forces were killed in Bandar Abbas and Bushehr.
Trump said the U.S. would “probably hit them hard again tonight” and later added the latest back-and-forth fighting would not result in “long-term” military action, while the AP reported the exchange raised fears the war could reignite.
The NBC News live updates also said U.S. Central Command described the strikes as a second day of action to “to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Threats, diplomacy, and rebuttals
Trump capped the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, by saying that the ceasefire with Iran is over and warning that the U.S. might launch more attacks, while he also characterized further negotiations as “a waste of time.”
In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Islamic Republic will not respond to “vulgarity with vulgarity,” adding, “We do not answer vulgarity with vulgarity, but with action: fearlessly and with great valor.”
The NBC News live updates quoted Trump at the end of the summit saying, “Let’s just finish the job,” and it also reported Vice President JD Vance saying that if Iran shoots at ships, the U.S. is “going to knock the hell out of them.”
The AP reported that Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a key negotiator in talks seeking a permanent end to the war, posted on X: “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
The BBC reported Trump threatened to take control of Kharg Island “in the not-too-distant future,” and it said Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced a ceasefire with the United States had become “practically untenable” in practice.
What’s at stake next
The Guardian reported that the latest attacks raised the risk of renewed escalation, and it quoted Iran expert Fatemeh Aman saying, “The latest attacks raise the risk of renewed escalation.”
Aman also warned that “No major actor seems to benefit from an open-ended regional war,” while she said the economic impact was already visible through oil prices, shipping and insurance costs, and investor confidence tied to the Strait of Hormuz.
The BBC said Trump confirmed Washington intends soon to extend its control over Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure and markets, writing on Truth Social that “In the not-too-distant future, we will seize Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure sites.”
The AP reported that a renewed conflict could engulf the wider Middle East and would likely again halt energy shipments through the strait that are crucial to the global economy.
In the same reporting, the AP said Trump cast doubt on the outcome of negotiations by saying, “They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time,” while Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi retorted on X that Trump’s remarks “are not a sign of power but an admission of the failure” of U.S. policy toward Iran.
