US President Donald Trump has threatened to launch further strikes against Iran after the two countries exchanged fire for the first time in a month, raising fresh fears of a wider escalation.
Iran launched missiles overnight at two US air bases in Jordan after US forces struck Iran’s Larak Island, where Washington said Iranian forces were preparing to launch rockets and sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’re going to hit them hard,” a Fox News reporter quoted Trump as saying. “There will be a response.”
Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office that the renewed fighting did not necessarily signal a return to full-scale war.
He described Iran as a “failed nation” whose economy and military had been severely weakened.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
Asked whether he had ruled out using nuclear weapons against Iran, Trump said there was “no reason” to do so because Iran was already “totally defeated militarily.”
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that the latest exchange was a “limited and contained confrontation”, but warned that Tehran would respond harshly if attacked again.
Trump said US air defences had intercepted all Iranian missiles capable of causing damage, while claiming that new US economic sanctions were having a major impact on Iran.
Trump posts AI-generated Iran attack videos
The US president also posted two videos on social media showing explosions allegedly engulfing Iran’s main oil export terminal on Kharg Island, accompanied by the message: “Kharg island being blown to smithereens!!!”
However, the videos were AI-generated and did not depict an actual attack.
Iran described Trump’s post as “laughable”, while Vice President JD Vance said Trump “likes to switch it up on social media a little bit” and was “sending a message”.
Washington has so far avoided attacking Iran’s major oil and gas infrastructure, despite Tehran warning that such strikes would trigger devastating attacks against US allies in the Gulf.
US steps up economic pressure
Instead, Washington has intensified economic pressure on Tehran through sanctions targeting Iran and companies in other countries that purchase its oil.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran was “lashing out” because the latest sanctions were beginning to hurt its economy.
“They’re in shock at the state of their economy,” Bessent told reporters at a G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in North Carolina.
“I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.”
Bessent had earlier told Reuters that Washington was likely to announce new secondary sanctions every week, initially focusing on banks.
US strikes Iranian island
US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island on Sunday after, according to a US official, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were seen preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that three people were killed, while the state-affiliated Nournews said two victims had been identified as members of the Revolutionary Guards Navy.
Larak is a small island in the Strait of Hormuz, near the strategic Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
The strait normally carries about a fifth of global crude oil and gas shipments but has been effectively blocked since the beginning of the war.
US Central Command said it had carried out “limited, precise” action against Iranian Revolutionary Guards forces involved in minelaying, describing them as posing an “imminent threat”.
Iranian state television separately reported that a supertanker had caught fire and stopped after being hit by two naval mines in the southern part of the strait. The US military later denied the claim.
Iran says it still wants negotiations
Despite the renewed confrontation, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran still favoured a negotiated end to the conflict.
“… we believe that continuing the war is in no one’s interest, neither ours, nor the region’s, nor humanity’s,” Tasnim quoted Pezeshkian as telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Kyrgyzstan.
Trump halted his “Operation Epic Fury” bombing campaign with a ceasefire in April, while Washington and Tehran agreed in June on an interim framework for negotiations.
That arrangement later collapsed, followed by repeated exchanges of fire, including two weeks of US bombing in July.
Over the past month, Washington has sought to use a blockade of Iranian ports and mounting sanctions to force Tehran to accept US demands.
Iran, meanwhile, has maintained that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and will only reopen under its supervision.
Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set at the start of the war, including dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme, limiting its ability to attack regional rivals and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.
