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US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Tuesday with dangerous repercussions if the Strait of Hormuz was booby-trapped, after Tehran, which was subjected to violent strikes as part of the US-Israeli attack, issued a series of high-profile positions regarding continuing the war and preventing the export of oil through the vital corridor.
Although Trump hinted on Monday that the war might end soon, there are no indications of that. On Tuesday night, AFP journalists reported hearing new explosions in northern and western Tehran, after others had rocked them earlier. The targets targeted by the bombing were not known.
Tehran vowed not to allow a drop of oil to leave the Middle East in light of the war. It continues to launch missiles and drones towards the Hebrew state and the Gulf states, and restricts navigation in the strait, which raises fears of serious and long-term consequences.
In what appeared to be a comment on this, Trump said via Truth Social, “If mines are placed for any reason and are not removed immediately, the military repercussions on Iran will be at an unprecedented level.”
Despite the strikes that caused severe damage to the leadership, installations, military headquarters, and civilian sites, Iran renews its determination not to retreat.
Shura Council Speaker Muhammad Baqir Qalibaf said on the X platform, “We certainly do not seek a ceasefire. The aggressor should be punished and receive a lesson that will deter him from attacking Iran again.”
He added, “The Zionist entity has continued to perpetuate a malicious and repeated cycle of ‘war, then negotiations, then ceasefire, then war again’… We will break this cycle.”
This position was added to a series of statements in which Iranian officials did not hide that pressure on the energy and oil issue is part of Tehran’s strategy in waging war.
Revolutionary Guard spokesman Ali Mohammad Nini said on Tuesday, “The Iranian Armed Forces… will not allow the export of a single liter of oil from the region to the hostile party and its partners until further notice.”
In addition, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said in a post on the
The Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas transported by sea passes, constitutes a major axis in the tug of war between Tehran on the one hand, and Washington and the Arab Gulf states.
Trump had threatened Iran with “much more severe strikes… if it held the world hostage” by disrupting the transportation of crude in Hormuz.
On Tuesday, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that the US Navy escorted an oil tanker through the strait, for the first time since the start of the war. However, he quickly deleted the post. The White House also confirmed that no step of this kind had taken place.
In turn, the Revolutionary Guard said that no American warship “dared” to approach the Strait of Hormuz. He warned in a statement that “any movement of the American fleet will be stopped by our missiles and marches.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that his country is ready to continue missile attacks “as long as necessary.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a call on Tuesday that Tehran expects the organization and the UN Security Council to condemn the “aggression” against it, according to what Tasnim Agency reported.
As the attacks continued, the UAE stopped work at the Ruwais refinery, which is one of the largest in the world and managed by the National Oil Company “ADNOC”, as a precautionary measure, according to what an informed source told AFP.
The source did not clarify whether the refinery was damaged, while the Abu Dhabi Media Office announced, “A fire broke out in one of the facilities within the Ruwais Industrial Complex, resulting from a targeting by drones, with no casualties recorded so far.”
– ‘Severe consequences’ –
The Iranian army reported on Tuesday that it had targeted a military and intelligence center in Israel. On the other hand, the Revolutionary Guard announced the launch of a new batch of missiles at the Hebrew state and at “American force bases” in the region.
Tehran responded to the American-Israeli attack by launching missiles towards the Hebrew state and countries in the region. While Iran confirms that its strikes target American bases and interests, the bombing targeted energy facilities and civilian sites.
The Pentagon reported on Tuesday that about 140 US military personnel had been injured in attacks since the start of the war. The US Army previously announced the killing of seven of its members as a result of Iranian strikes, six of them in Kuwait and one in Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia announced the downing of marches, while the authorities in Bahrain announced the killing of two people in a drone strike on a residential building.
Oil prices were at the forefront of global concerns on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, member states of the International Energy Agency will hold a meeting to assess the “supply security situation” and the possibility of using strategic oil reserves.
Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Hassan Nasser said that the repercussions of the war could be “severe on global oil markets the longer this unrest continues,” stressing that “the resumption of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz is an absolutely vital issue.”
Iraq is also looking for alternative ways to export its oil amid the ongoing war, an Oil Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
Qatar condemned the attacks that targeted energy facilities “from both sides,” and considered that they constitute “a dangerous precedent whose repercussions will reach the entire world.”
As for India, it ordered restricting the consumption of natural gas and cooking gas, while warning restaurants of the possibility of stopping their services.
The markets witnessed a slight decline of five percent in the price of oil on Tuesday after a sharp rise on Monday.
– “Broken bones” in Iran –
On its first day, the attack resulted in the killing of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a number of military leaders and members of his family in a strike on his residence in Tehran.
The Leadership Council of Experts elected his son Mujtaba as supreme guide to succeed him, according to what was announced overnight from Saturday to Sunday. The new guide has not yet made any public statement.
After announcing the election of Mojtaba Khamenei, state television broadcast a report on the most important moments of his life, saying that he was “wounded in the ongoing Ramadan war.”
While Trump spoke of a near end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed, in statements published on Tuesday, that the war “is not over yet,” and that the strikes “break the bones” of the regime in Tehran. “We aspire for the Iranian people to throw off the yoke of tyranny,” he added.
The Israeli Cyber Security Directorate announced that it had monitored “dozens of Iranian hacks into surveillance cameras for espionage purposes” since the beginning of the attack, calling on the public to be cautious.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for “rapid containment of escalation” in the Middle East during a phone call on Tuesday with his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, the day after a similar call with Trump.
The Israeli army announced new attacks on Tehran on Tuesday, where explosions were heard, according to Agence France-Presse reporters.
Israel continued to launch raids on Lebanon, saying they were targeting Hezbollah, especially its strongholds in the south, east, and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Iran accused Israel of killing four of its diplomats in a strike on a hotel in Beirut late last week, in a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The Israeli army announced that the strike it carried out in the Raouche area of Beirut killed five people, including three leaders in the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an Iranian “intelligence element,” and a Hezbollah representative in the Palestine Corps.
Israeli strikes and evacuation warnings prompted about 760,000 people to flee their homes in Lebanon in just over a week, according to the government.
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