U.S. President Donald Trump was quoted on Monday as promising to "hit them hard" after Iran launched missiles overnight at two U.S. air bases in Jordan in response to a U.S. attack on Iran's Larak island.
"We're going to hit them hard," a Fox News reporter quoted Trump as telling the channel. “There will be a response.”
A senior Iranian source, speaking to Reuters, described the overnight hostilities between the United States and Iran, the first since late July, as a "limited and contained confrontation" but added that Tehran would deliver a harsh response if attacked again.
Trump also said U.S. air defences had shot down all Iranian missiles that could have caused any damage and said that tough new U.S. economic sanctions on Iran were having a big impact, Fox News reported.
PILING ON ECONOMIC PRESSURE
Washington has recently stepped up efforts to punish Tehran and its business partners with costly secondary sanctions, with diplomacy in stalemate six months into a war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, echoing Trump, said on Monday the resumed exchanges of fire showed that Iran was "lashing out" now because the new sanctions were taking a heavy toll on its already battered economy.
"They're taking it very seriously...they're in shock at the state of their economy," Bessent told reporters at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in North Carolina. “I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.”
Bessent told Reuters on Sunday new secondary sanctions were likely to be unveiled weekly in the effort to pressure Iran, with an initial focus on banks.
US HIT IRANIAN ISLAND IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ
U.S. forces on Sunday struck two Iranian launchers on Iran's Larak Island, a U.S. official said, after "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz".
Three people were killed in the U.S. attack, Tasnim news agency reported. The state-affiliated Nournews said two of them had been identified as members of the Revolutionary Guards Navy.
Larak is a small island in the strait near the strategic Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The Strait of Hormuz, which normally handles a fifth of global crude oil shipments, has been effectively blocked since the start of the war.
In a statement, the U.S. Central Command said it took "limited, precise" action against minelaying forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that posed an "imminent threat" in the strait. It gave no details.
In response, as well as attacking the U.S. bases in Jordan, Iran's army said it had struck the Al Minhad air base in the United Arab Emirates early on Monday. However, the UAE's defence ministry dismissed that report as false.
The UAE defence ministry later said its air force engaged a drone that had come from Iran over its territorial waters. It provided no further details.
Iranian state TV quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying a supertanker had caught fire and was brought to a complete halt after being struck by two naval mines in the southern Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military later dismissed the claim as false.
PRESIDENT SAYS IRAN STILL WANTS NEGOTIATED END TO CONFLICT
The senior Iranian source, who has direct knowledge of Iranian decision-making and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said conditions in the Strait of Hormuz would "become worse for vessels that violate" rules set by Tehran for passage through the waterway.
The source added that no target was beyond Iran's reach.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a milder tone on Monday, telling India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Kyrgyzstan, that his country still sought a negotiated resolution of the conflict.
"... we are still trying to achieve an agreement and understanding, and we believe that continuing the war is in no one's interest, neither ours, nor the region's, nor humanity's," Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying.
‘BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS!!!’
Trump had annoyed Iran overnight by posting on his Truth Social platform an AI-generated video clip that he said showed Iran's oil hub Kharg Island being “blown to smithereens!!!”
There was no evidence of any such attack and a U.S. official said on Monday the military had not targeted Kharg Island in overnight strikes. An Iranian official dismissed Trump's post as "laughable".
Reuters confirmed that the video clip showing dramatic explosions was most likely synthetically generated, using software that detects AI-manipulated imagery.
The White House and the U.S. Defense Department did not respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.
Kharg handled 90% of Iran's oil exports before the war launched by U.S. and Israeli attacks on February 28, and attacking it would severely disrupt energy trade and put huge pressure on the economy.
Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set out at the start of the war: dismantling Iran's nuclear programme, curbing its ability to attack regional rivals and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.
Source: Reuters
– Agencies
