Iran reports fresh US strikes; Trump warns of wider attacks next week
US President Donald Trump has threatened to expand strikes next week to target Iranian power plants and bridges if Tehran does not make a deal.
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TEHRAN: Iran reported fresh United States strikes on Wednesday (Jul 15) on a port city that is home to the country's only civilian nuclear plant, as Washington reimposed a naval blockade in a return to war between the foes.
Nearly a month after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding towards ending the Middle East war that began in February, the two sides resumed fighting with strikes on targets across the region.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, where the military said it had intercepted attacks against civilian targets, while Jordan's armed forces said they had downed three missiles from the Islamic Republic.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, threatened to widen strikes next week to hit power plants and bridges unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table.
"Next week it gets really bad for them," he told Fox News.
Despite a return to hostilities, mediated talks between the two sides have not formally ended.
At the heart of the resumption of hostilities has been the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that is crucial for global oil and gas flows.
AGREEMENT "DISMANTLED"
Iran blockaded Hormuz after the US and Israel launched their massive attack on the country on Feb 28, using it for leverage against its foes for months before briefly reopening it, and then again vowing it would be closed "until the US ends its aggression".
The US, in turn, has reimposed its own blockade of Iran's ports, though Trump has backed down on a planned 20 per cent levy on ships using the strait.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the renewed US blockade "has, in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum", referring to the interim deal reached last month to halt hostilities and pursue peace talks.
However, Jennifer Parker, an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia's (UWA) Defence and Security Institute, said the renewed blockade is characteristic of Washington's strategy of using economic pressure to push Tehran back to the negotiating table.
“The (previous) naval blockade put in place on Apr 13 … did encourage Iran to sign that (Islamabad) memorandum in mid-June,” she told CNA’s Asia First.
“Naval blockades are predominantly about economic warfare … and ensuring (the enemy) is not resupplied with weapons systems, drone parts, ballistic missile parts, etc. But it will take significant time to have an impact.”
Five days after the return to war, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck dozens of Iranian military targets near the strait and elsewhere along the country's coast to "degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews".
Iranian state media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the island of Qeshm and on Bandar Imam Khomeini. It later said fresh US strikes hit the southern port city of Bushehr, home to the country's only civilian nuclear plant.
In the capital Tehran, there was no sign of a return to conflict, with ordinary Iranians thronging cafes to watch the France-Spain World Cup semi-final in huge crowds, AFP journalists saw.
But in Kuwait, repeatedly targeted throughout the war, locals were anxious.
"Every day, I wake up wondering whether the situation will de-escalate or worsen," said Mustafa Mohamed, a 39-year-old Sudanese accountant in the Gulf country.
"It has become difficult to feel at ease or plan anything because uncertainty grips everyone."
George Atef, a 38-year-old Egyptian civil servant in Kuwait, said: "What exhausts me most is not knowing when this situation will end - the waiting itself has become draining."
TRUMP SCRAPS LEVY
Since the war began, Iran has asserted its control over the Strait of Hormuz and opened fire on ships for taking routes it says are unauthorised.
"The retaliatory operations of the fighters will continue, and the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the US ends its acts of aggression," the Guards said.
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of CENTCOM, said on Tuesday that over the past week, "Iran has intentionally targeted civilians across the region by attacking seven commercial ships resulting in nearly a dozen civilian crew members killed, missing, or injured".
"US forces are holding Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives," he added.
A Norwegian tanker was hit by an explosion caused by an unidentified device off the Omani coast early on Tuesday, the crisis response company MTI Network said.
And Kuwait said one of its naval vessels was struck during an Iranian missile and drone barrage, wounding four crew members.
Trump meanwhile said he was scrapping a planned levy on ships passing through the Strait of Hourmz that he announced Monday, replacing the fee with trade deals with Gulf allies.
"I have decided to replace the 20 per cent United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the US," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.
UWA’s Parker pointed out that Trump’s Hormuz levy plan was never a realistic US policy.
“The US relies, as does most of the world, on the principle of freedom of navigation and upholding the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” she said, adding that any attempt to impose such a toll would run counter to those principles.
Under UNCLOS, ships of all nations have the right to pass through straits used for international navigation continuously and without interference.
Since last week, renewed US attacks have killed at least 30 people in Iran, government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani said.
Separately, the military announced that seven of its personnel were killed in Wednesday's strikes on the southeast.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country has not so far rejoined the war, warned Iranian leaders on Tuesday that Israel would deal a heavy blow if they launched an attack on his country.
Speaking from Dimona, a southern town widely believed to house Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, he told them: "Do not count on things remaining quiet if you attack us."
US EXPANDS SANCTIONS ON IRAN
Washington on Tuesday expanded its sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector, taking further aim at the network of petroleum shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the Treasury Department said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department had also frozen US$130 million held in digital wallets linked to Iran's central bank, hitting a sector that has seen increased activity since the start of the war.
"We will continue to aggressively follow the money and deny the Iranian regime access to the proceeds of its illicit revenue schemes," he said in a post on X.
"This action is part of Treasury's ongoing efforts to ramp up economic pressure on the Iranian regime after it resumed destabilising attacks in the Strait of Hormuz," the Treasury Department said in a notice Tuesday.
It charged that the Shamkhani network remains a key force behind Iran's oil exports, and has expanded into global commodities trading.
The latest move took aim at more than 50 individuals, entities and vessels that it said enabled Iranian authorities to reap profit.
The Treasury Department added that it has now imposed sanctions on over 200 individuals, entities and vessels operating under Shamkhani's patronage.
Shamkhani is the son of security official Ali Shamkhani, an advisor to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Both were killed on Feb 28, the first day of US-Israeli attacks and the start of the Middle East war.
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