The US carried out a new round of strikes in Iran targeting more than 80 sites and revoked a waiver allowing new sales of its oil, further imperiling a peace agreement after a series of attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
American forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats.
The US Central Command, in a statement on X on Tuesday, described the strikes as “an immediate response” to Tehran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the strait.
The US military said the latest American attacks had been concluded. Kuwaiti air defenses responded to hostile missile and drone threats, the country’s army said in a post on X.
IRGC said it struck Ali Al-Salem Airbase in Kuwait and the Fifth Fleet naval base in Salman Port, Bahrain, according to a statement carried by Iran’s state television.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, issued a warning to the US after the attack. “The era of bullying and extortion is over,” he said on a post on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
Hours earlier, the US Treasury Department announced it was barring new sales of Iranian oil after July 7, removing a key incentive intended to get Tehran to abide by a deal that calls for reopening the strait.
Taken together, the US actions further strained the interim agreement signed on June 17 and threatened negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent peace within 60 days. President Donald Trump approved the strikes on Iran while he was in Turkey for a NATO summit, according to a US official who asked not to be identified.
Brent oil climbed 3.4 percent to trade near $77 a barrel early Wednesday. The rebound, after futures had plunged in the second quarter as regional tensions cooled, could rekindle inflationary concerns in global markets and among policymakers.
Brent prices touched a peak above $126 a barrel in late April, two months after the US and Israel began the military campaign against Iran. Prices returned toward pre-conflict levels this month on growing signs of a recovery in supplies.
Both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire. Three commercial ships were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz over the last day, the most since the agreement went into effect, with the US blaming Iran for the strikes.
Iran called the US operation and the waiver revocation violations of the interim deal. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi vowed “decisive actions” in response.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity before the American strikes, said Iran would only receive the benefits of the deal if it behaved responsibly, but added that negotiators continued to work in good faith toward a final accord, signaling Washington wasn’t ready to abandon the peace process.
The end of attacks on commercial shipping and the previous 60-day waiver allowing Iranian oil sales were key elements of the memorandum of understanding that halted fighting between the US and Iran.
That deal was meant to create space for more detailed negotiations on the fate of Iran’s nuclear program and the future of the strait. But Iran has had difficulty in selling its crude, as price discounts narrowed, Chinese demand remained relatively muted and other nations fretted over the durability of the US waiver.
Even so, the memorandum has held only tenuously. In late June, Iran struck a Singapore-flagged container ship in the strait, prompting the US to retaliate and setting off a series of back-and-forth attacks.
Tehran has repeatedly said it wouldn’t allow vessels to transit the waterway without its permission, though it denied any involvement in an attack on a Qatar-linked vessel. Trump had pushed for ships to pass freely through the strait as they had done before the US and Israel began attacking Iran in late February.
Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official, said the waiver revocation “is a signal to a complacent market that the ceasefire may not be as durable and solid as thought. The market has some risk pricing to do.”
The attacks underscore the continued risks to commercial shipping through Hormuz, even with military forces protecting vessels that use a route near Oman’s coastline.
Iran has sought to steer ships toward its own shores by laying mines in the strait, according to US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle. Their goal is to “force shipping into their side of the actual Strait of Hormuz,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg This Weekend, parts of which will be broadcast Sunday.
Another challenge facing the Iran-US peace talks is Israel’s parallel war against Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tehran has tied the end of hostilities in Lebanon to its own ceasefire with the US, while Israel has vowed to respond to attacks on its soil from the neighboring country.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to visit Israel on Wednesday, according to an Israeli official, who declined to be identified because the visit has yet to be officially announced.
While they did not elaborate on the agenda, the issue of US sales of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey is likely to be discussed. Trump on Tuesday gave another strong indication that he may soon try to reverse his own ban on Turkey buying the planes, a move long opposed by Israel.
The reversal in the US stance on Iran occurred just as oil flows and production from the Persian Gulf were starting to approach prewar levels. US authorization for sales of Iranian oil played a significant role in calming investor worries about supply shortages and helped tame oil prices.
Talks between the US and Iran were suspended as Tehran began a funeral for the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war in late February. Qatar said the next meeting would be scheduled as soon as possible after the ceremonies. Khamenei will be buried in his hometown of Mashhad on July 9.
