US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was “over” on Wednesday, after fighting flared between the countries sparked by Iranian attacks on ships in the vital Strait of Hormuz.
The strategic shipping route remains a flashpoint in the conflict, which began in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Tehran insists on controlling the waterway, saying it will charge fees for passage and threatening to hit vessels that deviate from its authorised route.
Its military has struck at least three ships in recent days, which prompted extensive US strikes against Iranian targets on Tuesday followed by retaliatory attacks from Iran on Gulf countries.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” Trump said at a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday when asked if the truce was intact, saying “It’s just a waste of time dealing with them”.
“I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it. I don’t like these people.”
Oil prices jumped five percent after Trump’s remarks.
Both sides reported hitting dozens of targets, placing fresh strain on an interim deal to end their war and pushing oil prices to their highest level in two weeks.
Iranian state media on Wednesday reported a wave of explosions around the strait, including six on the island of Qeshm, seven in the city of Sirik and more in the major port city of Bandar Abbas.
It later also reported a series of blasts in the port city of Bushehr, which hosts the country’s only civilian nuclear power plant and lies near Kharg island, the main oil terminal through which 90 percent of the nation’s crude exports transit.
State media said a member of the military’s Revolutionary Guards was killed in Iran’s southwest.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had struck over 80 targets, including Iranian air defence systems, coastal radar sites and 60 IRGC small boats.
The strikes aimed “to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor”, it said.
Tehran’s reply came quickly, with the Guards saying they hit dozens of US military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain, where an AFP journalist heard blasts.
Early on Wednesday, Bahrain’s interior ministry and the Kuwaiti army both reported their air defence systems were triggered, but did not offer details of any possible damage.
Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the United States of “major” breaches of their memorandum of understanding, including by reinstating oil sanctions and “violating Iranian adjustments in the strait”.
Washington revoked sanction waivers on Iranian oil sales, raising pressure on Tehran as it negotiates over a final settlement to the conflict.
The US Treasury Department cancelled a licence announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.
“Iran’s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences,” a US official told AFP.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US-Iran memorandum of understanding was “entirely performance-based”, warning that Tehran would see benefits only if it showed “good behaviour”.
– Hormuz attacks –
British maritime security agency UKMTO said Tuesday an “unknown projectile” hit a tanker near Hormuz, causing a fire, before two more vessels were struck, at least one by a drone.
CENTCOM identified the ships as the Marshall Islands-flagged Al Rekayyat, the Saudi Arabia-flagged Wedyan and the Liberia-flagged Cyprus Prosperity.
All three vessels were struck close to Oman, which had proposed a temporary transit corridor hugging its coastline — an initiative opposed by Iran as it seeks to impose fees on ships using the narrow waterway.
The Al-Rekayyat is Qatari, and Doha denounced the “unacceptable” attack on international maritime navigation and summoned Iran’s deputy ambassador to lodge a complaint.
Iran voiced “dismay” over Qatar’s accusations in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA, calling the claims “unacceptable”.
“We are now in a sensitive period where potential alternatives to an Iranian toll or fee system are being explored,” Andreas Krieg, a security expert at King’s College London, told AFP.
“Iran is sending a clear signal that no alternative will be accepted.”
Maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the memorandum last month, but Iran has insisted there will be no return to pre-war arrangements, under which vessels could pass freely through the strait.
Under the 14-point US-Iran memorandum, Iran and Oman, which border Hormuz, must hold talks “to define the future administration and maritime services” in the waterway with other Gulf states.
