The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be slipping as both sides launched new strikes overnight, shattering what had, for the most part, been a two-month pause to the war.
The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be slipping as both sides launched new strikes overnight, shattering what had, for the most part, been a two-month pause to the war.
The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be slipping as both sides launched new strikes overnight, shattering what had, for the most part, been a two-month pause to the war.
The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be slipping as renewed strikes from both sides threatened a two-month pause in the war.
U.S. Central Command released new video late Wednesday, showing strikes targeting Iranian military surveillance, communication systems, air defense sites, and other facilities that posed threats to U.S. forces and commercial ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz.
The escalation comes after a U.S. Army attack helicopter collided with an Iranian drone earlier this week. The incident sparked days of renewed fighting in its aftermath.
Shortly after the helicopter attack, President Donald Trump predicted a deal to stop the war and reopen the Strait could come between Thursday and Friday.
“I’ve been working with Iran for a number of months, and they should sign the deal. It’s a good deal. It doesn’t give them the right to have a nuclear weapon. In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon, and it was just tap tap tap. I don’t know what they’re doing,” Trump said on Wednesday. “We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us the suckers.”
The president’s comments exemplify the back-and-forth nature of his views on ending the war. He also said on Wednesday Iran would “pay the price” for stalling what he described as a good deal.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the retaliatory U.S. strikes as “strong” and “clear.”
“As President Trump said, they’ve been tap, tap, tapping. You can see when someone’s trying to tap, tap, tap on a deal. Instead, they’re going to have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America,” Hegseth said. “We don’t have to restart. The War Department is prepared to set the terms to ensure that we get the kind of deal President Trump expects.”
Iran refuses to surrender its uranium, which could be used to build a nuclear weapon and is demanding that sanctions be lifted, among other conditions of a deal. This is despite Trump saying repeatedly that Iran agreed to give up the radioactive material. So far, Trump has rejected Iran’s demands for sanctions relief.
The president insists that if the war ends, U.S. gas prices and inflation would drop dramatically. New government data from Wednesday showed inflation is at the highest rate in three years, and prices are up 4.2% compared to last year.
“It’s going to come down like a rock,” Trump said. “When it’s over, you will see oil drop to where it was before.”
International oil prices were trading higher as of Thursday morning, after falling from wartime peaks over the last month.
While the latest trend could suggest investor confidence in the war’s trajectory, it could also indicate increased oil supply in the global market.
On Wednesday, Trump claimed the U.S. military had helped smuggle more than 200 ships carrying over 100 million barrels of oil to market last month. While the military did not confirm this, it confirmed that commercial ships continue to navigate the Strait of Hormuz despite Iranian threats.
The U.S. has also been targeting oil tankers attempting to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. One such strike on Wednesday killed three Indian citizens, according to Indian officials.
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