The US said it had launched a fresh wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday as President Donald Trump warned Tehran it “better behave”.
The US military said “Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels” moving through the Strait of Hormuz had been targeted, and that it had also fired on a ship attempting to violate its renewed blockade of Iran’s ports.
It came after Iran claimed it had struck US military targets in the region, including in Bahrain and Kuwait, as a fifth day of renewed hostilities strained their preliminary deal to end the war.
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state media Tehran had “no reason” to abide by the deal if it did not benefit from it.
Trump had threatened late on Tuesday to attack bridges and power plants should Iran not return to talks next week.
Asked by reporters late on Wednesday whether he would give a deadline before doing so, he responded: “I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know, they know the story… they better behave.”
He later told delegates at a defence summit that Iran was “not happy right now”.
“They want to settle so badly. They don’t like what we’re doing,” he said. “We’ll find out whether we want to settle with them or if we just finish it off.”
Ghalibaf however said Iran’s national security depended on Tehran maintaining “Iranian arrangements” in the strait.
He added that negotiation – along with war – was part of Iran’s strategy of resistance as it engaged an “existential” conflict with the US.
Despite the renewed outbreak of fighting, Trump welcomed what he saw as a potential olive branch from Tehran in freeing an American detainee that the US president said had been “wrongfully detained” in December 2024.
“She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump wrote on Wednesday evening on his Truth Social social media platform. “The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!”
The woman, Dena Karari, was on her way back to the US, according to her attorney, Jared Genser, in a post on X.
