The United States and Iran exchanged fire late on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire.
Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, as the US insisted it struck in retaliation.
The US military said it targeted sites responsible for attacking three US warships transiting the strait, in what it called “unprovoked” hostilities by Tehran. Iran’s Press TV reported that after several hours of fire “the situation on Iranian islands and coastal cities by the strait of Hormuz is back to normal now”.
The skirmishes threw into question the viability of a shaky ceasefire that had largely held for the previous month. But Donald Trump, the US president, insisted it remained intact despite the strikes, which he described in an interview with ABC News as a “love tap”.
“They trifled with us today,” Trump told reporters, during an evening visit to the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC. “We blew them away. They trifled. I call that a trifle.” Asked where this left hopes of a negotiated end to the conflict, Trump said a deal “might not happen, but it could happen any day”.
“I believe they want the deal more than I do,” the US president claimed.
In a statement on Thursday evening, US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed the strikes, writing: “Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage. No US assets were struck.”
Centcom said its forces eliminated “inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities” responsible for attacking US forces, including missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes.
“Centcom does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces,” it added.
Iran’s military accused the US of breaking the ceasefire agreement by targeting an Iranian oil tanker and another ship entering the strait of Hormuz.
“The aggressive, terrorist, and pirate US military has violated the ceasefire,” a military spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added the US carried out airstrikes on “civilian areas” along the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik and the island of Qeshm and that the strikes were launched “with the cooperation of some regional countries”.
They said Iran’s armed forces responded by attacking US military vessels, “reportedly inflicting significant damage on them”.
The US been pressuring Iran to reopen the strait, enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports. On Monday, the US military said it had destroyed six Iranian small boats, as well as cruise missiles and drones, after Trump sent warships to “guide” stranded tankers through the strait in a campaign he called “Project Freedom”.
The renewed hostilities on Thursday came a few hours after officials in Pakistan claimed both countries were close to a temporary agreement to halt the war in the Middle East.
Officials in Islamabad said a very basic “interim” deal could be reached this weekend and that Tehran was reviewing a US proposal.
However, Pakistan and Trump have repeatedly suggested a breakthrough is imminent while weeks of efforts to negotiate a permanent end to hostilities have made little real progress.
In a social media post on Thursday evening, Trump praised the crews of the destroyers for transiting out of the waterway while under fire. The US vessels sustained “no damage”, he said, while describing the “Iranian attackers” as having been “completely destroyed along with numerous small boats” as well as missiles and drones.
Trump railed that the attack showed Iran was “not a normal country” and its “lunatic” leaders would not hesitate to use a nuclear weapon if they had one. Without swift diplomatic action, the US could respond “a lot more violently” in the future.
Last month, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire which included a temporary reopening of the strait of Hormuz after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan.