Tehran launches more strikes after second round of US attacks in southern Iran

Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the country’s chief negotiator with the US, said on X that America “still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free”.

“Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you’ll get hit,” he wrote, adding that the Strait of Hormuz will only open under Iranian arrangements – not “American threats”.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the most recent round of strikes was carried out to “further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners” in the vital waterway.

In a statement, it said it had struck 90 Iranian military targets, which included air defense systems and military logistics infrastructure along Iran’s coastline.

“The latest strikes follow successful execution of offensive strikes in Iran the night before,” Centcom added.

Phil Belcher, marine director at Intertanko, an international organisation for independent tanker owners, said the number of ships travelling through the Strait via the southern route closer to Oman was now in “single figures” following the step up in hostilities.

Belcher added that the overall daily figure of about 30 ships was down from about 70 a week ago and well below the normal number of 130 ships that was seen before the Iran war began earlier this year.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there had been an “exuberance of optimism” around shipping in the region following the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the US last month, but now the mood has changed.

“This cycle of violence, this cycle of up-and-down, positive-negative news, it’s having an enormous impact both on business [and] on the seafarers themselves,” he said.