ANKARA/DUBAI, July 9 - The United States (US) military has said that it launched fresh strikes on Iran on Wednesday to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping, triggering Iranian attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain in the latest escalation to derail efforts to end the war.
The latest round of attacks, which the US said was carried out in response to Tuesday's assault on three cargo ships transiting the strait, came hours after President Donald Trump said he believed an interim ceasefire with Iran to be "over."
"US Central Command forces have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz," said the US military's Middle East command in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
"The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway," it added.
The US strikes rattled several cities along Iran's southern coast and left some areas without power. Iran responded with a second day of attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, both home to US military bases.
Kuwait's Defence Ministry said it was intercepting missiles and drones, while Qatar briefly issued an "elevated security threat" alert before later giving the all-clear.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the strikes against Iran on Wednesday will be more numerous than those carried out on Tuesday.
"This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Control of the Strait, through which a fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war, has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world's most powerful military.
While Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks, analysts say Tehran uses such actions to gain leverage in negotiations.
"The US has yet to learn that bullying and breaking its commitments no longer come without a cost. Let me be clear: If you strike, you will be struck back.
"The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened only under Iranian arrangements, not through US threats," Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf wrote on X.
The latest exchange of strikes appeared to dim hopes of turning a memorandum of understanding signed on June 17 into a permanent deal to end the war, which began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
Asked before a NATO summit in Turkiye on Wednesday whether the memorandum of understanding was over, Trump said: "It is a very interesting question. To me, I think it is over. I do not want to deal with them."
"If we make a deal with Iran, I am not sure that it will stick. I found them to be very dishonourable people," he later said.
But Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to escalate military action before backing off, said he did not expect a return to full-fledged war, and that it was not clear whether the negotiations on reaching a permanent deal would continue.
Also on Wednesday, he said he did not think the war would restart: "Anything that happens is going to be over very quickly ... and will only make it safer, including for oil."
Wednesday's attacks pushed oil prices higher, with Brent crude futures rising about one per cent to US$78.80 a barrel by 0054 GMT. Even so, prices remained well below the late-April peak of more than US$120 a barrel.
Major Iran port city hit by strikes
Iranian media reported strikes primarily along Iran's southern coast, from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman.
Among the locations hit were Bandar Abbas, home to Iran's largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities on the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Konarak and Chabahar, neighbouring coastal cities near Iran's border with Pakistan.
Electricity had been restored to most areas of Chabahar after strikes knocked out power for some in the city, Mehr news agency reported, citing the local utility. The media also reported that a maritime traffic control tower in Chabahar was hit.
State media reported that a firefighter was killed in a strike on the airport in the southeastern city of Iranshahr, while Press TV reported that in northern Iran, a US attack hit a railway bridge near the town of Aqqala.
Prior to the fresh US attacks on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei had said US strikes had violated the memorandum by challenging a clause that "emphasises the Islamic Republic of Iran's responsibility in determining arrangements for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz".
A spokesman for Parliament's National Security Commission had said options for retaliation included withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), changing Iran's nuclear doctrine, and closing the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, another crucial global shipping route.
In a letter to the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Wednesday, Iran's mission to the UN accused the United States of "blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and its international obligations" and said its attacks violated the memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries.
