Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is still in place despite today’s exchanges of fire in the strait of Hormuz.
“The ceasefire is going – it’s in effect,” the president told US ABC News.
In relation to the US strikes on Iranian forces, he said: “It’s just a love tap.”
As reported earlier, the US military’s Central Command said it carried out “defensive strikes” on Iranian assets after “unprovoked Iranian attacks” on three US destroyers in the strait.
Iran’s top joint military command accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships in the waterway and attacking civilian areas.
Donald Trump has said an agreement with Iran on ending the war “might not happen, but it could happen any day”.
“I believe they want the deal more than I do,” he told reporters in Washington DC.
He also reiterated the ceasefire was still in effect.
Yeah, it is. They trifled with us today. We blew them away.
Donald Trump has told reporters the US is still negotiating with Iran, reports are saying, after the fresh exchange of fire between the two countries in the strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s armed forces also exchanged fire with the US on Qeshm Island in the strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media.
It is the largest Iranian island in the Gulf and home to about 150,000 people. It houses a water desalination plant as well, the AP says.
Iranian state media also reported loud noises and what it called defensive fire in western Tehran.
In southern Iran, explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas, the semiofficial Iranian news agencies Fars and Tasnim said, without identifing the source of the blasts.
Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is still in place despite today’s exchanges of fire in the strait of Hormuz.
“The ceasefire is going – it’s in effect,” the president told US ABC News.
In relation to the US strikes on Iranian forces, he said: “It’s just a love tap.”
As reported earlier, the US military’s Central Command said it carried out “defensive strikes” on Iranian assets after “unprovoked Iranian attacks” on three US destroyers in the strait.
Iran’s top joint military command accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships in the waterway and attacking civilian areas.
Donald Trump is saying “great damage” was done to the Iranian forces that attacked the US destroyers in the strait of Hormuz.
He also said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the US would knock out Iran “a lot harder and a lot more violently” if it didn’t agree to a peace deal “FAST”.
The US president said the three US destroyers successfully transited out of the Hormuz strait under fire and without damage but there was “great damage” done to the Iranian attackers.
They were completely destroyed along with numerous small boats, which are being used to take the place of their fully decapitated Navy. These boats went to the bottom of the Sea, quickly and efficiently. Missiles were shot at our Destroyers, and were easily knocked down. Likewise, drones came, and were incinerated while in the air. They dropped ever so beautifully down to the Ocean, very much like a butterfly dropping to its grave!
Trump also said Iran was being “led by LUNATICS” and repeated his regular theme that Tehran would use a nuclear weapon if it had chance, but said “they’ll never have that opportunity”.
Donald Trump has reportedly told US ABC News the ceasefire with Iran is still going and “in effect” despite today’s new strikes.
The US military’s Central Command has named the navy destroyers it says were attacked by Iran in the strait of Hormuz as the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta and USS Mason.
As mentioned earlier, it said Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as the vessels transited the waterway but that none were hit.
It added in the statement posted on social media:
CENTCOM does not seek escalation but remains positioned and ready to protect American forces.”
And now we have some confirmation of fresh strikes from US Central Command.
US forces intercepted “unprovoked Iranian attacks” and responded with “self-defense strikes” as US Navy guided-missile destroyers transited the strait of Hormuz, Centcom said.
“Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats” as three US destroyers transited the waterway, Centcom said. “No US assets were struck.”
Centcom added that it “eliminated inbound threats and targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces including missile and drone launch sites; command and control locations; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes.”
Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, the country’s top joint military command said early on Friday (local time in Tehran is almost 1am).
The US targeted “an Iranian oil tanker travelling from Iran’s coastal waters near Jask toward the strait of Hormuz, as well as another vessel entering the strait of Hormuz near the Emirati port of Fujairah,” a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement carried by state media.
“At the same time, with the cooperation of some regional countries, they carried out air attacks on civilian areas along the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik, and Qeshm Island.”
Iran’s armed forces responded by attacking US military vessels, “reportedly inflicting significant damage on them,” the spokesperson said.
There’s been no word yet from the US military.
Three US Navy destroyers near the strait of Hormuz have been targeted by the Iranian navy, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reports.
It comes after an earlier report from Iran’s state broadcaster that “enemy units” operating in the area of the strait came under Iranian missile fire, following an attack by the US military on an Iranian oil tanker, forcing the units to retreat.
It follows a US jet disabling an Iranian oil tanker on Wednesday after it attempted to evade the US blockade.
I’ll bring you more on this as well as any comment from Washington as we get it.
Iran’s Mehr news agency reports that air defences have been activated in western Tehran “countering hostile targets”.
Mehr also said another explosion had been heard in Bandar Abbas, along with an explosion heard in Minab, to the east of Bandar Abbas. Both areas lie north of the strait of Hormuz.
