President Trump declared the interim ceasefire with Iran "over" and said Tehran is "begging" for a deal, even as both nations exchanged punishing rounds of airstrikes that rattled Gulf allies, spiked oil prices, and left the prospect of a permanent agreement in doubt.
U.S. Central Command hit approximately 90 Iranian military targets on Wednesday, the second wave of strikes in two days. Iran answered by launching drones and missiles at Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar, the first time Tehran had targeted Qatar since the memorandum of understanding was signed. Sirens sounded at least twice in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet headquarters, and Kuwait's military confirmed it was actively intercepting incoming projectiles.
The escalation followed Iran's attacks on merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carried roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil and natural gas before the war began. Trump framed the U.S. response in blunt terms on Truth Social: "This is in retribution for yesterday's bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!"
The Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, struck more than 80 Iranian targets late Tuesday, air defenses, radar sites, and anti-ship missile batteries. Follow-up bombings that night ignited large fires at Iranian ports. By Wednesday, CENTCOM had launched a fresh wave against an additional 90 targets, releasing black-and-white footage showing strikes on an airport runway and missile launchers.
Iranian state media reported explosions in Bushehr, site of Iran's nuclear power plant complex, as well as Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Abbas, Sirik, and Iranshahr, where a firefighter was killed in an airport strike. A railway bridge in northeastern Golestan province was also hit, part of a route connecting Iran to China through Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
The Washington Examiner reported that a third wave of strikes extended to areas near the Bushehr nuclear facility and into northern provinces, targeting the railway bridge and other infrastructure. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said two bridges on the route to Mashhad had been attacked, though it remained unclear whether those were the same incidents or separate strikes.
The scope of the operation marked a clear escalation. U.S. strikes had not targeted Iranian bridges since April, and the combined two-day total exceeded 170 targets, a tempo that signaled Washington's intent to degrade Tehran's ability to threaten commercial shipping.
Tehran's retaliation came late Wednesday night. The Revolutionary Guard claimed attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait. The Washington Times reported that sirens also sounded in Jordan, and that Iran's Health Ministry said at least 14 people had been killed and 78 wounded across two days of American airstrikes.
There was no immediate word of damage in Bahrain, Kuwait, or Qatar from the Iranian strikes. But the targeting of nations hosting American forces represented a significant widening of the conflict, and a direct challenge to the ceasefire framework that had been holding.
Near Basra, Iraq, an oil tanker burned at the Khor al-Zubair port after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone. Three tankers had already been hit on Tuesday. The cumulative effect on global energy markets was immediate: Brent crude surged to $78.39 per barrel, its highest price since June 19, and all three major U.S. stock indexes ticked down in pre-market trading.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One just after Iran's retaliatory strikes, Trump projected confidence about the American position. His message was direct, and deliberately contradictory to Tehran's public posture.
"They want to make a deal so badly. They just called a little while ago. They want to make a deal very badly. I just don't know that they're worthy of making a deal."
When a reporter asked why Iran was attacking ships if it wanted a deal, Trump did not flinch: "They're sort of crazy, to be honest with you. They're out of control, but they want to make a deal badly."
At the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump declared the ceasefire memorandum of understanding finished. "For me, I think it's over," he said. He allowed that U.S. representatives could continue talking but added, "They can talk, but I think they're wasting their time."
Trump also signaled that the conflict could intensify further. He threatened to target Iran's civilian infrastructure, electric plants, desalination plants, and Kharg Island, the oil-production hub through which roughly 90 percent of Iranian oil exports flow. He had previously considered escalating military action against Iran and questioned last month whether the U.S. "has the stomach for it." On Wednesday, he suggested the military might "just finish the job." And he warned: "Anything that happens is going to happen very fast."
Iran's public response was predictably combative. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, described as a key negotiator in talks seeking a permanent end to the war, posted on X Thursday morning:
"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."
Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, another top negotiator, retorted on X that Trump's remarks "are not a sign of power but an admission of the failure" of U.S. policy toward Iran. Iran's Foreign Ministry, as the AP reported, denounced the strikes as a "grave war crime" while simultaneously claiming they violated the MOU, a document Trump had already declared dead.
But behind the rhetoric, Tehran faces a leadership vacuum. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28 in the war's opening moments. His funeral procession moved through Mashhad on Thursday toward the Shrine of Imam Reza, where crowds displayed banners threatening Trump and chanted revenge slogans.
His successor, son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not appeared publicly since the February 28 strike. Fox News reported that Mojtaba is reportedly badly wounded and has communicated only through written statements. The Revolutionary Guard is now widely seen as the dominant force in Iran's political and military decision-making, a reality that complicates any negotiation, since the Guard's institutional incentives run toward confrontation, not compromise.
Trump himself acknowledged the danger. He told reporters he knows he is "No. 1 on the Iran kill list."
Negotiations toward a final agreement were supposed to start after Khamenei's burial. The talks are meant to focus on fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz and rolling back Tehran's nuclear program. The two sides remain far apart.
Trump is demanding that Iran stop trying to produce a nuclear bomb and hand over its entire stockpile of enriched uranium. Iran wants control over the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of U.S. sanctions, and the unfreezing of billions in overseas assets. Tehran has asserted that the interim ceasefire deal gives it the right to manage traffic through the strait, a claim the U.S. has not publicly accepted.
The chasm between those positions was already wide before this week's exchange of fire. Now, with the MOU declared dead by the American president, the pathway to talks looks even narrower. Trump had previously canceled planned strikes and said a deal was imminent. That window appears to have closed.
Iran's earlier attacks on commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz, including strikes on tankers as Trump arrived at the NATO summit in Ankara, forced the president's hand. Whatever diplomatic signals Tehran may have been sending privately, its military actions told a different story.
The immediate question is whether the cycle of strikes and counter-strikes stabilizes or accelerates. CENTCOM's statement left little ambiguity about American readiness: "U.S. forces remain vigilant, lethal, and prepared to execute operations directed by the Commander in Chief."
Trump's threat to target Kharg Island, the chokepoint for 90 percent of Iran's oil exports, represents a potential escalation that would carry enormous economic consequences for Tehran and global energy markets alike. Whether that threat is a negotiating lever or a genuine operational plan remains an open question.
Iran's leadership, fractured and operating without a visible supreme leader, faces its own dilemma. The Revolutionary Guard may control the levers of power, but the Guard's track record suggests it is better at provoking confrontation than managing the consequences.
When a regime attacks the ships of neutral nations, fires on countries hosting American forces, and then claims it wants peace, the word for that is not diplomacy. It is desperation wearing a uniform.
