The United States military has said it is conducting another wave of strikes on Iran, a day after launching another round of attacks.
The escalation, which is the most severe since both sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) ending the fighting in mid June, left a fireman dead following the attack on Iranshahr airport in southeastern Iran, state news agency IRNA reported.
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Wednesday’s attacks have threatened a return to full-fledged war.
The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X on Wednesday that at President Donald Trump’s direction, its forces “have started conducting additional strikes against Iran to further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”.
“The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway,” CENTCOM said.
The post came shortly after Iran’s Mehr news agency reported air defences were engaging what it described as “hostile targets” near the port city of Bandar Abbas, as well as explosions near Konarak, Chabahar and Bushehr. Mehr later reported that explosions had been heard in the southeastern city of Iranshahr.
Iranian officials later told Fars news agency that the attacks on Chabahar included strikes on a maritime control tower and a depot.
Both the US and Iran have accused the other of violating the MoU, which ended fighting, lifted the US naval blockade on Iran, and opened the Strait of Hormuz, while leaving more intractable issues, like the future of Iran’s nuclear programme and administration of the strait, to be determined over a 60-day negotiating period.
The key point of contention appears to be over the fifth clause of the MoU, which says that Iran “will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels, with no charge for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa”.
Iran has interpreted the provision to mean it had sole “responsibility in determining arrangements for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Wednesday. That position has been used to justify attacks on unapproved vessels transiting the strait.
“The MoU required the US to lift its reciprocal blockade of Iran’s ports – which it did – [and it] required the US to waive sanctions for the Iranian sale of oil – which it did – and it required Iran to not interfere with civilian shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” David Des Roches, former Pentagon NATO operations director, told Al Jazeera.
When Iran attacked these ships, Tehran was trying to instil a new normal beyond the terms of the MoU, in which ships had to go through Iranian waters, and Iran would attack them if they did not, he explained.
“That’s unacceptable to President Trump. So these strikes are a retaliation to that action,” said Des Roches.
The Trump administration has maintained that the MoU requires unfettered passage to all vessels, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett reported from Washington, DC.
“Since the signing of the memorandum of understanding, opening that 60-day window to allow for broader negotiations, the US has insisted that any uptick in conflict and military clashes is the result of Iran exercising sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz,” Halkett said, “which the White House insists is an international waterway and necessary for the global economy.”
The latest strikes have drawn condemnation from Trump’s political opponents, including US Senator Bernie Sanders, who said war with Iran will “cost more lives and waste more taxpayer dollars”.
Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Trump said the exchange of attacks, which saw Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) strike US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait, meant the ceasefire was “over”.
“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran,” Trump posted on social media. “If it happens again, it will get much worse!
Still, he said he did not want a return to full-fledged war and suggested that negotiations could still continue.
Speaking from a NATO summit in Ankara, Trump also lodged a laundry list of threats against Iran.
Beyond another round of strikes, Trump said the US could reinstate its naval blockade on Iran and target its electricity and water plants – attacks that international law experts say constitute war crimes.
He also said that US forces “may take over” Iran’s Kharg Island, a prospect that would all but assuredly require boots on the ground.
