The United States (US) launched a new wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday as President Donald Trump warned Tehran it “better behave”.
The US military said it had targeted “Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels” transiting the Strait of Hormuz and fired on a ship attempting to breach its renewed blockade of Iranian ports, BBC reports.
The escalation followed Iran’s claim that it had struck US military positions in Bahrain and Kuwait, marking a fifth day of renewed hostilities that strained a preliminary deal to end the war.
Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told state media Tehran had “no reason” to uphold the deal if it failed to deliver benefits.
Trump, who threatened Tuesday to attack bridges and power plants unless Iran returned to talks next week, told reporters he disliked setting deadlines but added, “They pretty much know… they better behave.”
Addressing a defence summit later, he said Iran was “not happy right now” and “wants to settle so badly,” adding: “We’ll find out whether we want to settle with them or just finish it off.”
Ghalibaf countered that Iran’s national security depended on maintaining “Iranian arrangements” in the strait, and said negotiation as well as war formed part of Tehran’s resistance strategy in what he called an “existential” conflict with the US.
Trump’s rhetoric intensified after he said a 20 per cent toll he had threatened to impose in the Strait of Hormuz would be replaced by “massive” trade and investment deals with Gulf states.
His earlier threat in April to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure drew condemnation from UN human rights chief Volker Türk, who warned that “deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime.”
US Central Command (Centcom) said Wednesday’s strikes were the second wave carried out in daylight hours, claiming they had “further degraded Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping.”
A 90‑minute barrage targeted coastal defences and cruise missile sites on Greater Tunb Island. At 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT), Centcom confirmed the second wave had hit Iranian “command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities,” including in Bandar Abbas.
Centcom also said two commercial vessels had been redirected since the blockade was reimposed Tuesday evening. The blockade, lifted last month under a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending months of conflict, has become a flashpoint in US‑Iran tensions.
In response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Washington to “expect the closure of other oil and gas export routes that serve the interests of the United States and its allies,” without specifying which routes.
The renewed confrontation has underscored the Strait’s strategic importance, with tanker traffic slowing sharply and global oil prices spiking as hostilities continue.
