U.S. strikes Iran again after Trump denies report of deal to reopen Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. Armed services carried come out young strikes targeting an iranian language drone on operation that posed a threat to U.S. Forces and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. Official said, hours after President Donald Trump dismissed an Iranian report of a deal to restore traffic ‌through the strategic waterway.

The U.S. Official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters Wednesday that the military shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

A ceasefire between the U.S. And Iran took effect in early April.

"These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire," the official said.

Iran's Tasnim News Agency cited a military source as saying that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Navy fired toward a U.S. Oil tanker ​that was trying to transit the strait, forcing it to turn back. The source said the U.S. Military then ​struck open ground around Bandar Abbas, with no casualties or damage reported.

The U.S. Military also carried out strikes in southern Iran on Monday, in what it described as defensive action — but which Iran said was a "gross violation" of their ceasefire.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump ⁠dismissed an Iranian state TV report that it ⁠had obtained an unofficial draft of an agreement to restore commercial shipping through the strait to prewar levels within ‌a month, with Iran and Oman jointly managing traffic.

Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, a country with which the U.S. Has decades-long military and economic ties.

"Nobody's going to control [the strait]," Trump said. "It's international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up. They understand that, they'll be fine."

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Trump said that the Iranian economy has been "clobbered" by the effects of the war and that Tehran would not be able to outlast his administration in a waiting game. The president said he felt no pressure to strike a deal given the approaching U.S. Midterm elections on Nov. 3, even as polls suggest headwinds for Republicans as Americans have felt the pinch from rising gas prices.

"We prefer the negotiated, diplomatic route and we're going to give it every chance to succeed," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the same media availability.

Traffic through the strait, which normally carries about one-fifth of global trade in oil and liquefied natural gas, has been a fraction of its usual level since the war began.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security ​committee, said Trump’s "rhetoric" would not force Iran to back away from its demands to enrich uranium, wield authority over the strait and see sanctions against ⁠it lifted.

"It is obvious Trump, seeking a ⁠way out of this strategic deadlock, alternates between issuing threats and appealing for an agreement," Azizi said in ‌a post on X.

The duelling statements suggest the two countries remain far apart, even after suggestions from the White House in recent days that an initial deal to end the war could be imminent.

Trump has said that once a deal is struck, the U.S. Would monitor shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is covered by international law that guarantees foreign vessels the right to pass through.

"We'll watch over it, but nobody's going to control it — that's part of the negotiation that we have," he said.

The war began on Feb. 28 with a U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran and has disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, boosting energy prices as well as straining global supply chains.

The state media broadcast came a day after Iran's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. Had violated a ceasefire by striking targets near the contested Strait of Hormuz.

Further straining peace efforts, Israel pounded Lebanon with more than 120 airstrikes on Tuesday in one of the heaviest days of bombing in weeks, Lebanese security sources said. And the Israeli military on Wednesday told residents across southern Lebanon to leave as it expands its operations there, saying in a statement that the military will "work with extreme force" against Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group.

Iran has sought an end to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as part of any deal.

Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium, but negotiations on Iran's stockpile of uranium don't appear to be imminent. Trump last year claimed strikes conducted with Israel over a 12-day period had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capabilities.

The last deal over the nuclear program — struck in 2015 and torn up by Trump in 2018 — took years of negotiations between large teams of technical experts.

Several Republicans in Congress have bristled in recent days at what they've seen reported about a deal framework, arguing that Iran would still retain the ability to be a disruptive and dangerous force in the Middle East.

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