By Idriss LAWAL
After a fresh salvo of strikes against Iran early today, marking a new escalation in the resumption of hostilities, US President Donald Trump said a deal with Tehran is still possible.
“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight, and we’re going to hit them hard tomorrow,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on July 13.
Oil prices shot up more than nine per cent over fears of renewed conflict.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced strikes had begun at 2045 GMT, the third consecutive night of attacks.
“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”, CENTCOM said.
ALSO READ: Oil price jumps 3% as renewed strikes threaten vessels via Strait
Early on July 14, the United Arab Emirates said Iran had attacked two ships in the vital waterway, killing one crew member and wounding eight others.
“The Ministry of Defence announces that the national tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah were targeted by two Iranian cruise missiles while transiting the southern shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz, within Omani territorial waters,” the Emirati defence ministry wrote on X.
That reported attack came after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 13 announced new strikes on Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait.Trump formally notified Congress last week that the US had resumed military conflict against Iran, the White House confirmed to AFP, giving the Pentagon an additional 60 days to operate in the region without congressional approval.
Trump also threatened to destroy Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried nuclear site near Natanz where Western intelligence suspects Iran is building an undeclared enrichment facility.
“Tell the Iranians to be ready. Let them know we’re coming… there’s not a damn thing they can do about it,” he told Hewitt.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi immediately mocked Trump’s toll threat, writing on X that “POTUS is absolutely right” that whoever guarantees safe passage should be compensated – but that Tehran would charge less.
“20 per cent is of course too much,” he said.
Washington has vehemently opposed Tehran’s desire to charge tolls in the strait, which international law generally forbids.
Despite all signs to the contrary, Trump said on July 13 that a deal with Tehran to end the Middle East war was still possible.
“Yeah, I think a deal is possible. Sure, I do,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We had a deal with them two days ago and then they said ‘Oh we can’t make that deal. We have to negotiate it further’.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said earlier on July 13 that the June memorandum of understanding that formed the basis for the negotiations and lifted the US blockade was “in crisis”.
