In a statement, the ministry called the U.S. administration “evil and psychopathic” and condemned the attacks that damaged bridges and a railway linking Tehran to the city of Mashhad, where the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is to be buried in a funeral service later Thursday.
Iran’s Health Ministry says 14 people were killed in the latest fighting.
Hossein Kermanpour, public relations official at the ministry, said U.S. attacks targeting five Iranian provinces on July 8 and 9 also injured 78 people, 47 of whom are still hospitalized.
Gulf countries reported Iranian attacks following the US strikes, with explosions in Bahrain’s capital Manama, Kuwait intercepting missiles and drones, and Qatar issuing a security alert.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it launched retaliatory strikes overnight against U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and called them “the first phase of the punitive response against U.S. treaty violators.”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the country’s chief negotiator with the United States, said on X that America “still has not learned that intimidation and breaking promises is no longer gratuitous.”
“Let me say this clearly: If you hit, you will be hit,” he wrote, adding that the Strait of Hormuz would only open under Iranian agreements and not “US threats.”
US Central Command (Centcom) stated that The latest round of strikes was carried out to “further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and innocent civilian sailors” in this vital waterway.
In a statement, it said it struck 90 Iranian military targets, including air defense systems and military logistics infrastructure along the Iranian coast.
“The latest strikes follow the successful execution of offensive strikes in Iran the previous night,” Centcom added.
Phil Belcher, maritime director of Intertanko, an international organization of independent tanker owners, said the number of ships crossing the strait via the southern route was now “in the single digits” following the intensification of hostilities.
Belcher said the daily figure of about 30 ships was down from about 70 a week ago and well below the normal number of 130 ships seen before the start of the Iran war earlier this year.
“The number of ships transiting overnight is about unique on the southern route, which is maintained off the coast of Oman by the United States,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, as around 20 ships took a northern route overseen by Iran.
He told the program there had been an “exuberance of optimism” around shipping in the region following the signing of the agreement. memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States last month, but now the mood has changed.
“This cycle of violence, this cycle of ups and downs, positive and negative news, has a huge impact on both businesses [and] on the sailors themselves,” he said.
On Wednesday evening, several explosions were reportedly heard on other parts of the Iranian coast, including in the towns of Konarak and Chabahar.
Iranian state television reported eight explosions in Bandar Abbas and said two missiles hit the ports of Sirik and Jask, also in southern Iran.
He added that two projectiles hit Abu Musa Island, which is the subject of a long-running property dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Air defense systems have been activated in Bandar Abbas, according to Iranian state media.
The extent of the damage caused by the US strikes is not yet known, but Iranian media reported power outages in Chabahar and a fire at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) barracks in Bushehr.
Two of the three power lines cut in Chabahar were quickly restored and a third would soon be operational, the Iranian Students’ News Agency said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Centcom wrote in a statement that it held Iran responsible for “the recent unjustified aggression against commercial vessels and civilian crews navigating freely on a vital international waterway.”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday evening, the US president said Iran had “called a short while ago” and was “very keen to make a deal.”
Trump added: “I just don’t know if they’re worth making a deal. I don’t know if they’re going to honor the deal, that’s the problem.”
On Tuesday, the US military announced it had launched “powerful” strikes in response to attacks on three oil tankers in the strait.
The current surge marks the worst exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran since the signing of the agreement – known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – on June 17.
Trump said Wednesday that the ceasefire deal signed last month with Iran was now “complete.”
He told reporters: “I don’t want to deal with them anymore, they’re trash. You know what they are? They’re trash. They’re sick people.”
In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a message on X: “We do not respond to vulgarity with vulgarity, but with action: without fear and with great courage.” »
The U.S.-Iran deal included 14 points, including a 60-day ceasefire period during which negotiations are expected to continue, the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iran.
The 60-day period for negotiations has not yet expired, but Trump said he considers continuing negotiations “a waste of time.”
These are not the first strikes since the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
The United States launched a series of strikes against Iran on June 26 after an Iranian projectile hit a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
New American strikes took place on June 27, following an attack on an oil tanker. But later that month, both sides agreed to “walk away.”
