DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran said on Tuesday it would reciprocate if the United States honoured its commitments under a June interim deal on halting their conflict, but tensions remained high after US President Donald Trump threatened Tehran with further strikes.
Oil prices rose after the first exchange of direct attacks since late July, and following reports of two tankers coming under fire leaving the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping.
The six-month-old conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before a U.S. attack on Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday, which Iran responded to by launching missiles overnight at two US air bases in Jordan.
“We’re going to hit them hard … There will be a response,” a Fox News reporter quoted Trump as telling the channel on Monday, although the president separately told reporters that the renewed strikes did not signal a return to full-scale war.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters the exchanges of fire were a “limited and contained confrontation” but said Tehran would deliver a harsh response if attacked again.
While neither side appears to want a return to all-out war, their pledges to respond to further attacks highlight how quickly a conflict that has increasingly been fought through sanctions, blockades and economic pressure could spill back into military action.
