President Trump railed Monday against the Iranian leadership and promised to respond after Tehran launched attacks on U.S. military bases in the Middle East overnight, signaling that the regional conflict could start again after a monthlong lull in fighting.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump called Iran a “failed nation” and repeated his assertion that the U.S. military had eliminated Tehran’s ability to fight back or pay its soldiers. He added that the country’s leadership is in “total disarray and incapable of properly representing the country.”
Later Monday, Mr. Trump told Fox News’ Trey Yingst that the U.S. would deliver a military response to Iran’s overnight strikes.
“We’re going to hit them hard,” he said. “There will be a response.”
Iran on Monday launched a new wave of retaliatory strikes against targets in the Middle East in response to U.S. attacks on an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes marked the first kinetic exchange since July.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had launched missiles and drones at the King Hussein and Al Azraq air bases in Jordan overnight, causing “heavy damage” to infrastructure, maintenance facilities and enemy fighter jet positions. Al Azraq, known officially as Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, hosts the U.S. Air Force’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing. King Hussein focuses on more specialized units.
The Jordanian military contradicted Iran’s claims, asserting that its forces intercepted eight missiles that breached its airspace before they could threaten any infrastructure or troops.
The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense also reported intercepting a drone launched from Iran attempting to enter its airspace. The interception caused no damage or casualties, the ministry said.
Iranian military officials had previously claimed to have launched a series of ballistic missiles at the Al Minhad Air Base, which the UAE denied. The air base also hosts a small U.S. contingent alongside Australian and British forces.
The IRGC also said its forces downed an MQ-9 Reaper drone near the Strait of Hormuz. Some estimates say Iranian air defenses have downed at least 45 MQ-9 drones since the start of the war, or about 25% of the pre-war U.S. inventory.
Both strikes were in apparent retaliation for a U.S. attack on Larak Island, a small Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz, southeast of Qeshm.
U.S. Central Command said it launched the strikes Sunday after determining that Iran was preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines from the island into the strait.
Iranian officials say at least three people were killed in the strikes on Larak Island.
U.S. Central Command said the attacks Sunday were not a change in U.S. posture and constituted only a “limited, precise action” against an “imminent threat” in the Strait of Hormuz. Mr. Trump and other administration officials asserted at the start of the war on Feb. 28 that the U.S. launched strikes to eliminate the imminent threat posed by Iran’s conventional weapons.
Last week, CENTCOM announced that the U.S. had successfully demined the Strait of Hormuz, paving the way for the safe transit of commercial ships through the waterway. Other reports said the U.S. had also begun ramping up its efforts to guide tankers through the strait via Omani waters, indicating that Iran was losing its leverage over the waterway.
Iran closed the strait in March, and commercial traffic in the waterway has been sharply reduced since. The price of Brent crude oil rose to about $90 per barrel Monday.
Shortly after fighting restarted in July, Mr. Trump publicly called off another round of airstrikes, citing positive steps toward diplomacy. The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding — which called for an immediate halt to military operations and opened the door to further technical negotiations — had been signed by both nations in June, but was effectively set aside when hostilities resumed. Most of August was dominated by U.S. officials insisting that there would be no further kinetic action for the time being as the Trump administration’s economic pressure campaign continued.
The pressure campaign, which includes expanding secondary sanctions on Iran’s trading partners and a comprehensive naval blockade, aims to either collapse the Iranian economy or force Tehran back to the negotiating table.
Tehran, however, has been far from willing to return to the negotiating table and has promised to respond forcefully to the pressure campaign and the U.S. strikes over the weekend.
The Iranian Armed Forces General Staff and the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the joint operational command center in Tehran, vowed Monday to respond forcefully to further U.S. military action in the region.
“As we have demonstrated in practice so far, while respecting the national sovereignty of our neighbors, we will never tolerate any form of aggression and will deliver a much heavier response,” the agencies wrote in a joint statement. “We warn you: you have repeatedly tested the strong resolve of our armed forces and our courageous and resilient people. Do not test it again.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that the only way to resolve the current situation is for the U.S. to live up to its commitments under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, which both nations signed in June.
The agreement, which included a regional ceasefire and called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, has effectively been dead since July, when fighting resumed over control of the waterway.
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