US strikes more than 80 targets as Trump calls Iran ceasefire ‘over’
President Donald Trump said he considers the ceasefire with Iran “over” after the U.S. military launched strikes against more than 80 targets on Tuesday in response to recent attacks against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over,” Trump said on Wednesday during a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Future talks between the two countries, Trump said, were also in doubt.
U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, announced on Tuesday that it had “completed a new round of offensive strikes against Iran” following attacks on three oil tankers, for which the command says Iran is responsible.
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“U.S. forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor,” a CENTCOM news release said.
The attacks were meant “to impose heavy costs” against Iran for the attacks against commercial shipping, a separate CENTCOM statement says.
In response to the strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has announced that it has launched attacks against U.S. military bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Defense officials have not publicly provided a detailed report of damage to U.S. bases in the Middle East since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28. Media outlets have reported that Iranian attacks over the course of the conflict have damaged and destroyed U.S. missile defense radars in the region and severely damaged the Combined Air Operations Center in Qatar, a major command post used for decades to direct air operations in the Middle East.
For months, the United States has been seeking to reach an agreement with Iran to end the war, but one issue that has bedeviled negotiations is the American demand that Iran allow commercial ships to freely transit the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows. A three-month-old ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran has been punctuated by frequent bouts of fighting.
The future of negotiations between both countries appears uncertain after Trump said on Wednesday that talking to the Iranians was a “waste of time.”
“They’re bad people, and frankly, I don’t want to waste my time with them,” Trump said. “Now, I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it.”