Iran attacks ships NOT paying protection money…..
Trump orders attacks AGAIN….
The Iranians shut DOWN the Strait….
The Iranians shoot back at countries that have US bases….
PROGRESS?
Solutions ?
Huh?
The U.S. military struck Iran in a new round of attacks on Wednesday night, military officials said, hours after President Trump said he thought a three-week-old cease-fire between the two countries was “over.”
Iranian state media reported that explosions had been heard in at least three port cities along the country’s southeastern coast. Shortly after the U.S. strikes, early Thursday local time, Kuwait’s army said it was intercepting drones and missiles and Bahrain’s interior ministry said warning sirens had been activated, without saying what triggered them.
Both countries were in the line of fire early Wednesday too, when Iran said it had targeted American bases there in retaliation.
The U.S. military said its latest strikes were intended to undercut Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy supplies that has become a key issue in the conflict. Mr. Trump called the new American strikes “retribution” for attacks on commercial vessels by Iran. “If it happens again, it will get much worse!” he wrote on social media.
Earlier on Wednesday, during a NATO summit in Turkey, Mr. Trump was asked about the cease-fire with Iran. “I think it’s over,” he said, but added that he was still open to negotiations and that he did not expect a return to all-out war.
Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, issued a warning early Thursday morning in Iran in response to the U.S. strikes. “The aggressor enemy and its accomplices will be severely punished,” he wrote on social media.
Shortly after, as he flew back to the United States, Mr. Trump claimed that Iran had reached out. “They called a little while ago,” he said. “They want to make a deal so badly.” Iran has said nothing about new negotiations.
Mr. Trump used one of the old presidential aircraft instead of the new Qatari-donated plane as a security precaution related to the resumption of hostilities with Iran, according to people briefed on the plans, who said the change came at the urging of the Secret Service.
The temporary cease-fire appeared tenuous almost from the moment it was signed last month, and the latest exchange of strikes seemed to have it on the verge of collapse. Each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the terms of the cease-fire.
The latest violence has centered on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has asserted that the terms of the deal give it oversight of the waterway, and has demanded that ships use Iran’s preferred routes. The United States has accused Iran of repeatedly targeting ships in the strait, although Tehran has not claimed responsibility for a series of strikes in recent weeks.
The strikes that began just before midnight in Tehran on Wednesday were the second in two days by the United States in response to attacks on three commercial vessels in the strait this week. On Tuesday, the United States also revoked a sanctions waiver on Iran’s oil industry — a provision of the cease-fire.
Shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has once more come to a halt. The temporary truce was intended to reopen the strait and stop the fighting, but left some of the thorniest issues, particularly Iran’s nuclear program, to be negotiated during a 60-day period.
On Wednesday, however, Iranian media outlets close to its military published editorials calling for “the official end” of the deal. A social media account belonging to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, posted a doctored image depicting a snake emanating from Mr. Trump’s signature on the cease-fire deal.
Here’s what else to know:
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Energy prices: Oil prices, which had fallen back near prewar levels following the cease-fire deal, rose 5 percent to about $78 a barrel. That is down from its peak during the worst of the fighting but above its prewar price of around $72 a barrel. Read more ›
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Strait of Hormuz: The uptick in violence is threatening to derail the fragile recovery of oil and gas shipments through the crucial waterway. On Wednesday, the head of the International Maritime Organization urged operators to avoid sending ships through the strait.
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Khamenei’s funeral: Talks between the United States and Iran had been paused during funeral ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed on the first day of the war. Read more ›
The United States launched new airstrikes against Iran early Thursday, and Tehran responded by hitting Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar in crossfire that again threatened an interim deal intended to help end the war in the Persian Gulf.
The strikes came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said recent Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz signaled the end of the fragile ceasefire. The U.S. struck a variety of military sites and port facilities early Wednesday following Iran’s targeting of several merchant vessels off the coast of Oman, sparking Iranian fire then as well.
But Thursday’s attacks appeared bigger all around, with sirens sounding at least twice in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters. There was no immediate word of damage in the three Gulf Arab countries. Kuwait’s military said it was actively intercepting incoming drones and missiles.
Military officials said in a social media post that the latest strikes were intended to “further degrade” Iran’s ability “to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
Iranian state media reported explosions in several locations, including Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear power plant complex, and the southern port cities of Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Abbas and Sirik……
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“Just two weeks ago, opening the Great American State Fair, President Trump triumphantly declared: ‘For the first time in 3,000 years, we are going to have peace in the Middle East.’,” the New York Times reports.
“It was typical bravado for Mr. Trump. But the ‘peace’ he was celebrating — the cease-fire with Iran that on Wednesday he declared ‘over’ after less than a month — was already beginning to unravel…”
“Now Mr. Trump appears to be confronting the consequences of his haste, and of his assumption, born of his time in the real estate business, that his adversary would prize economic benefits over the revolutionary ideology that has driven its politics since the 1979 Iranian revolution. That has left him facing a range of unpalatable options amid seemingly intractable sticking points over the fate of Iran’s nuclear program — to say nothing of its missile program, its support for terrorist groups and its repression of its own people.”….
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Punchbowl News: “Both chambers of Congress have passed concurrent war powers resolutions rebuking Trump over the Iran war. The White House says it’s non-binding — and wasn’t subject to a presidential veto — but supporters have floated going to court to enforce the resolution. Under the resolution, Trump would be required to end the involvement of any U.S. forces in combat operations unless Congress authorizes it.”
Said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA): “If Trump does restart the war, I think you’ll see people in court right away saying Congress has passed war powers. Both houses have declared the war is illegal.”
Bloomberg: What’s next after Trump says Iran ceasefire “over.”
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ISW….Iran Update Special Report, July 8, 2026
- Iran is willing to return to a large-scale conflict with the United States if necessary to secure its control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s behavior after the latest US strikes indicates that the Iranian regime values control over the strait more than avoiding renewed escalation with the United States.
- The present pattern of US strikes does not appear to be changing Iran’s calculus on controlling the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported on July 7 that it struck over 80 targets in Iran in response to repeated Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the strait.
- Iran is attempting to coerce Gulf states and others to acquiesce to Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz after Iran failed to secure recognition of its control over the strait through diplomacy.
- Iran is attempting to unilaterally impose a vision for the strait’s ”arrangements,” which are supposed to be created in dialogue with the Gulf states, not through coercing the Gulf states. Iranian coercion of the Gulf states is an effort to circumvent the intent of Clause 5, which administration officials noted was designed so that Gulf states would moderate Iranian positions about controlling the strait.
- Iran is using the ceasefire to reconstitute its military capabilities, as ISW-CTP has previously assessed.
- The Lebanese government announced on July 8 that it will participate in negotiations with the US and Israel in Rome, Italy, on July 15 and 16. The Lebanese government earlier claimed that its participation in negotiations would be contingent on an Israeli withdrawal from “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon.
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