US-Iran duel shows no sign of abating

Iran and the United States exchanged intensifying fire on Thursday in a week-long escalation that has largely unraveled last month’s truce, while Tehran disputed President Donald Trump’s claim that a US citizen had been released.

For the first time since a memorandum of understanding paused fighting last month, the United States launched two big waves of air strikes in a single day on Wednesday, mostly on targets near Iran’s southern coast, and kept firing on Thursday.

The White House on Thursday said Iran continued to talk to the US and wanted to make a deal, despite the US launching strikes on Iran after the latter violated the memorandum of understanding by firing on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I’ve spoken with the president about this … Iran very much continues to talk to the United States of America and express that they want to make a deal with us because they are suffering devastating blows on behalf of our United States military,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said while responding to a question during a press briefing.

“The reason for the recent strikes over the course of the last several days is because Iran violated the memorandum of understanding that we struck with them,” she added.

“Specifically, in the memorandum of understanding that they signed, they were not to fire on commercial vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz, and unfortunately, they have made the tragic decision for them to do that,” said the spokesperson.

Karoline said that the Strait of Hormuz is open to ships not travelling to or from Iranian ports and that the US Navy remains there “to ensure that it can take place.”

While reiterating the US commitment, she said that President Donald Trump remained open to diplomacy with Iran.

“The president will hold them accountable when they turn their back on the words that they state to the United States. But he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time,” Leavitt told reporters.

In a statement, US Central Command said US forces began “a new wave of strikes against Iran for the sixth consecutive night to further degrade Iranian military capabilities” at 2pm EDT (1800 GMT) or 9:30pm in Tehran.

Tehran has countered with missiles and drones targeted at US military bases in neighbouring states, including a barrage at a recently expanded air base in Jordan.

After Tehran resumed its blockade of the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, Washington again blockaded Iranian ports from Wednesday.

The US military said it fired on a tanker near Iran’s Kharg Island, with Hellfire missiles hitting its smokestack.

On Thursday evening, US projectiles struck Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas — home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Revolutionary Guards facilities — both on the Strait of Hormuz. Several locations in Bandar Abbas were hit by projectiles at 9:35 p.m. local time, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, attributing the attack to the “American enemy.”

Iran has signalled it could prod its Houthi allies in Yemen to close another key strait: the Bab al-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea. Sources told Reuters Iran had already told the Houthis to shut it if Washington carries out threats to attack Iran’s infrastructure.

The week of increasingly intense exchanges has tested the boundaries of the restraint both sides largely observed during four months of fighting before last month’s truce. Yet even as the attacks escalated, Trump on Wednesday welcomed what he described as the release of a US citizen detained in Iran, identified by a human rights lawyer as Dena Karari, calling it a gesture of goodwill by Tehran.

Reuters