Trump announces, for the umpteenth time, that he has reached an agreement with Iran, but at the same time continues to threaten Tehran with new, even more violent bombings.
Trump’s words
“Yesterday we hit them hard – the president of the United States told journalists present at the White House – today we will attack them forcefully again, in case you missed it, in case you hadn’t turned on the television. We will attack them hard, we were very close to an agreement, but they continued to stall, to make fun of us”. Trump then stressed that the United States “has the right” to respond militarily to Tehran after the shooting down of an American Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz.
The tycoon, answering questions, returned to the agreement with Iran: “The agreement is fully negotiated, the Iranians just have to sign it, but they delay because they know that it is significant, because it completely prohibits having a nuclear weapon, while the one reached by Barack Obama opened the way towards nuclear weapons.”
Raid on an oil tanker
Meanwhile, this afternoon, an American plane hit a loaded oil tanker, but broken down after a previous raid, in the Gulf of Oman which was transporting crude oil from Iran in violation of the blockade imposed by the US, the American Central Command announced. Yesterday the ship’s engine room was hit “with precision ammunition, after the crew had not responded positively to the directives imposed by the American forces”, CentCom explained in a post on X in which it identified the ship as the M/T Settebello with the flag of Palau.
India has condemned the attack on the commercial ship Settebello on board which there were 24 Indian sailors, 21 of whom were rescued while three are missing
US attacks
In the previous hours the US had carried out a series of attacks against Iran, defining them as retaliation for the shooting down of an Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz. According to Axios, the US strikes targeted several Iranian air defense systems and radar systems around Hormuz. A US official told CNN that the Trump administration believes the attacks will not hinder peace talks.
Iran’s reaction
In response, Iran fired missiles and drones at US targets in the region, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a Telegram post. In Bahrain, a video geolocated by CNN appears to show a flash of light coming from the vicinity of a US base shortly after the sirens rang out in the country. Jordan and Kuwait said they intercepted the attacks.
The American Al-Azraq base in Jordan was hit by an Iranian missile attack, according to Iranian media citing a Pasdaran statement. “They targeted and destroyed four main targets, including groups of F-35 fighter jets at an air base and the US military command center” in Azraq, Jordan, read the statement published by Iranian media. It is unclear whether US facilities in the region suffered damage in the latest attacks, but air defenses have been activated in all three countries.