Iran truce ‘over’ after fighting flares

TEHRAN, July 9 ------ United States President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was “over,” but left the door open to more talks, after fighting flared, sparked by Iranian attacks on ships in the vital Strait of Hormuz. The strategic shipping route remains a flashpoint in the conflict, which began in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Tehran insists on controlling the waterway, saying it will charge fees for passage and threatening to hit vessels that deviate from its authorized route. Its military has struck at least three ships in recent days, prompting extensive US strikes against Iranian targets on Tuesday, followed by retaliatory attacks from Iran on Gulf countries. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” Trump said at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Turkey on Wednesday when asked if the truce was intact. “It’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” he added. “I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it. I don’t like these people.”

Oil prices immediately jumped 5 percent after Trump’s remarks, having already reached their highest level in two weeks.

Multiple strikes, both sides

Both sides reported hitting dozens of targets, placing fresh strain on their interim deal to end the Middle East war. Iranian state media on Wednesday reported a wave of explosions around the strait, including six on the island of Qeshm, seven in the city of Sirik and more in the major port city of Bandar Abbas.

It later reported a series of blasts in the coastal city of Bushehr, which hosts the country’s only civilian nuclear power plant and lies near Kharg island, the main oil terminal through which 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports transit. State media said a member of the military’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been killed, while the foreign ministry said monitoring and observation sites had been hit on the southern coast.

The US Central Command (Centcom) said its forces had struck over 80 targets, including Iranian air defense systems, coastal radar sites and 60 IRGC small boats. The strikes aimed “to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor,” it said.

‘Anxious’

Tehran’s reply came quickly, with the Guards saying they hit dozens of US military facilities in American allies Kuwait and Bahrain, where an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist heard blasts.

Kuwait said it intercepted two ballistic missiles and 13 drones, while the Iranian army said it had also attacked US forces at Sheikh Isa air base in Bahrain. “I had gone to bed a bit late, but the air-raid sirens woke me up, leaving me feeling anxious,” said Nawal Saad, a Bahraini civil servant in her 40s. She lamented that “the specter of war is looming once more,” saying: “I do not want to go through that experience of fear and anxiety again.”

Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the US of “major” breaches of their memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last month, including by reinstating oil sanctions. Washington on Tuesday revoked sanction waivers on Iranian oil sales, canceling a license announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products until Aug. 21. “Iran’s actions in the strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences,” a US official told AFP.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the MOU was “entirely performance-based,” warning that Tehran would see benefits only if it showed “good behavior.” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at the summit in Ankara that the US strikes were “absolutely necessary.”

Hormuz attacks

Iran has struck several ships transiting Hormuz in recent days, accusing them of not following its authorized route.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Tuesday that an “unknown projectile” had hit one tanker and sparked a fire, before two more vessels were struck, at least one by a drone. All three vessels were struck close to Oman, which had proposed a temporary transit corridor hugging its coastline — an initiative opposed by Iran as it seeks to impose fees on ships using the narrow waterway.

Previously, maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the MOU last month, but Iran has insisted there will be no return to prewar arrangements, under which vessels could pass freely through the strait. “We are now in a sensitive period where potential alternatives to an Iranian toll or fee system are being explored,” Andreas Krieg, a security expert at King’s College London, told AFP. “Iran is sending a clear signal that no alternative will be accepted,” he said.

Source: manilatimes.net