U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States had delivered a “very powerful” strike against Iran overnight in response to Tehran’s attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking by phone to CNN, Trump said:
“We hit them very hard last night.”
He added that the United States and Iran had been close to reaching an agreement on Saturday.
“They were about to give up everything, and then suddenly, two hours later, they attacked a ship with a drone. There’s something wrong with these people,” Trump said.
Earlier, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced in a statement on X that U.S. forces had completed a third round of airstrikes within a week against Iran, hitting approximately 140 Iranian military targets on Saturday.
On Saturday, July 11, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had reclosed the Strait of Hormuz, suspending maritime traffic until further notice.
The strikes carried out on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, marked the first direct U.S. military attacks on Iran since a series of air raids late last month, which Washington said were launched in retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial shipping.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a key flashpoint in the conflict that began on February 28, when U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran were launched.
Despite U.S. objections, Iran has maintained that there will be no return to the pre-war navigation regime in the Strait of Hormuz, under which vessels transited without Iranian oversight or fees. Tehran has warned that ships attempting to use routes other than the designated shipping lane along its coast could be targeted.
Control of the strait—which handled around one-fifth of global oil supplies before the conflict—has given Iran significant strategic leverage, effectively providing it with a powerful geopolitical bargaining tool.
AFP
