War in the Middle East: The United States bombs Iran, in return Tehran claims to block Hormuz

The escalation continues between Washington and Tehran. The United States resumed its strikes against Iran on Wednesday evening after warnings from Donald Trump. In retaliation, the Islamic Republic announced overnight that it will target any ship transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, which is particularly strategic for international trade, particularly in hydrocarbons.

The American army announced that it had launched “at 5:15 p.m. (Washington time, 12:45 a.m. Wednesday night in Tehran) new strikes in self-defense against several targets in Iran,” according to the Middle East Military Command. (Centcom). “These strikes constitute a response to Iran’s unjustified and persistent aggression,” he added on X.

Conflicting statements on the Strait of Hormuz

Explosions were heard on the island of Qeshm, in Minab, Sirik and in the port of Bandar Abbas, Iranian media reported. The American strikes carried out overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday had already targeted this region of the southern coast of Iran, targeting air defense installations, ground control posts and Iranian surveillance radar sites, according to Centcom.

The Iranian army immediately announced that it would target any ship transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, which is now “completely closed to all types of ships, including oil tankers and merchant ships.” And the Iranian navy declared that “two ships which attempted to cross illegally” the strait had been “hit”. However, Centcom for its part affirmed that Hormuz remained open and that “commercial ships continued to transit” through the strait.

Trump fails to reach a deal

Furthermore, Iranian media claimed that Tehran had attacked the headquarters of the United States 5th Fleet in Bahrain, and that communications antennas as well as radars of the Patriot anti-missile system had been targeted. And the Revolutionary Guards immediately announced that they had struck the bases of Ali al-Salem and Ahmad al-Jaber, in Kuwait, and the air base of Sheikh Isa, in Bahrain.

Our file on the War in the Middle East

During the day on Wednesday, in front of journalists in the Oval Office, Donald Trump justified the upcoming strikes in advance. “We were really close to reaching an agreement, but they keep leading us on, they make fun of us,” he complained. “We are going to attack them, attack them very harshly,” the American president then threatened.