The United States is prepared for a continued exchange of fire with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran’s attacks on commercial vessels in the chokepoint, U.S. officials have told Axios, while both sides continued to trade strikes early on Thursday.
The U.S. is prepared for an escalation that could last from a day or two to multiple weeks to get Iran to back down from attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official told Axios.
Iran’s next moves will determine how long and how severe the U.S. response will be, according to the official.
“We're going to slap them a bit so they understand we're not f*cking around,” the U.S. official told Axios.
Late on Wednesday, or early Thursday Iranian time, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces completed an additional round of strikes against Iran, “to further degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. military said.
Iran said that it had retaliated with strikes at Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar in a further escalation in the region.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, posted on X on Thursday that “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.”
“Don’t flail around pointlessly, or you’ll sink even deeper: the Strait of Hormuz will only open with “Iranian arrangements,” not American threats,” the chief Iranian negotiator said.
The U.S. Administration believes it has more room for escalation as millions of barrels of oil have managed to exit the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, easing concerns about oil price spikes, U.S. officials have told Axios.
President Trump on Thursday claimed from Air Force One that Iran “called a little while ago”, and that “they want to make a deal so badly.”
But tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has come to a standstill since Wednesday as shipowners and operators are wary of how long this re-escalation will last.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
