Iran, US step up attacks, though release of American may signal path to climbdown
Iran says it can strike the Strait of Hormuz from anywhere on its territory.
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DUBA: Iran and the United States exchanged intensified fire on Thursday (Jul 16) in a week-long escalation that has all but torn up last month's truce, though Iran's release of a US citizen pointed towards a path to avert the resumption of all-out war.
For the first time since a memorandum of understanding paused fighting last month, the United States launched two big waves of air strikes in a single day on Wednesday, mostly on targets near the coast in southern Iran.
Iran responded with missiles and drones fired at US military bases in neighbouring countries, including a major barrage at a recently expanded air base in Jordan.
After Tehran resumed its blockade of the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, Washington again blockaded Iranian ports from Wednesday. The US military said it fired on a tanker near Iran's Kharg Island, with Hellfire missiles hitting its smokestack.
For one of its next moves, Iran has signalled it could prod its Houthi allies in Yemen to close another key strait: the Bab al-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea. Sources told Reuters Iran had already told the Houthis to shut it if Washington carries out threats to attack Iran's infrastructure.
The week of increasingly intense fire has tested the limits of escalation that both sides set during four months of fighting before last month's truce. But as the attacks unfurled, US President Donald Trump hailed the release of a US citizen in Iran as a "gesture of goodwill".
Human rights lawyer Jared Genser identified her as Dena Karari, who he said had been "trapped in Iran since December 2024 on bogus charges" and was "now safe and travelling back to the United States". There was no comment from Iran on the case.
Over decades of confrontation, the release of US citizens held in Iran has been managed through behind-the-scenes contacts that persisted when formal diplomacy was cut off.
SHIPPING HALTED AGAIN
The re-escalation has once again largely halted traffic through Hormuz, the world's most important shipping route for oil and gas, pushing up global energy prices.
Iran triggered the renewed fighting last week by striking ships moving through a corridor in the strait, provoking a dangerous fire on board a Qatari tanker filled with liquefied natural gas.
Iranian sources told Reuters that Iran's aim was to establish its authority over the strait, although otherwise Tehran is not keen on a wider escalation that would torpedo June's preliminary deal, which it still regards as giving it most of what it sought.
Within Iran, the renewed bombing has left residents anxious, following huge week-long memorial events for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the authorities depicted as a demonstration of victory and national solidarity.
"Living with this fear that war could start again is very exhausting. You cannot live like this. We are tired of war. What is our sin that we have to live this way? Personally, I want diplomacy to prevail," Mahlegha, 46, a government employee, told Reuters by phone message from Tehran.
IRAN SAYS US STRIKES CAN'T BREAK ITS GRIP ON STRAIT
Iran wants all ships using the Strait of Hormuz to travel only through a channel close to its shores, and has made no secret that it intends to charge passage fees at the end of a 60-day negotiation period set in last month's memorandum.
Washington has encouraged ships to use an alternative route to the south, along the Omani coast.
US forces say their airstrikes have hit Iranian military targets along the coast to cripple its ability to control the strait. Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said on Thursday this would never work because Iran can strike the strait from anywhere on its territory.
Three US officials told Reuters that US strikes could also serve as "shaping operations", giving Trump more options by targeting Iranian military capabilities that the US would want to have destroyed before taking bigger steps. "This is helping set the stage, if needed," one of the officials said.
Trump has not ruled out the possibility of using ground forces, including to seize Kharg Island, site of Iran's main oil export terminal. He has repeated threats to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations.
Akraminia said that if Trump carried out that threat, Iran's armed forces would strike "all remaining infrastructure" across the region.
Alex Vatanka, senior fellow and director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the warring sides were "back to square one", reaching the limits of what they can achieve in the context of limited war and would eventually face a choice of whether to back down or escalate.
The United States could not continue its limited strikes indefinitely because "at some point people are going to ask what is there left to hit", he said.
For now, Iran's retaliatory strikes have been focused on US bases in neighbouring countries. Iran said on Thursday it had fired on a Jordanian air base that Washington has upgraded in recent years into a regional headquarters.
It said the Jordanian base had been used to launch attacks on Iran, including one that caused damage to a children's cancer hospital in the city of Ahvaz.
"Our neighbours should know that providing a base to the Americans and allowing them to fire on Iranian soil is unacceptable and will not go unanswered," Iran's army said.
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