President Trump said Wednesday that the Iranian regime is getting weaker by the day as the U.S. economic pressure campaign and military strikes continue.
Mr. Trump told reporters that Tehran eventually is “not going to be able to shoot so easily because I think the people aren’t going to take it,” implying that Iranian citizens would soon rise up and overthrow the government.
On Feb. 28, when Mr. Trump launched Operation Epic Fury, he called on Iranian civilians to take the opportunity to seize control of their country and depose the regime.
Mr. Trump said he was prepared to order another round of attacks on Iran after its forces responded to U.S. attacks overnight.
“We hit them very hard last night. We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz. Some offensive, some defensive,” he said. “It was a very heavy attack last night, and we’re prepared to do another one any time we want.”
In a trademark display of Trumpian bravado, the American president even suggested on social media that he was considering renaming the critical waterway after himself.
“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ’hotter’ than ever before!” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade earlier Wednesday that the U.S. would continue to strike at Iranian forces that threaten maritime traffic in the strait and U.S. service members stationed in the region.
“We will continue to target those things that pose an imminent threat to our forces and to global shipping in the straits,” Mr. Rubio said. “The straits will remain open, and they will not be under Iranian control.”
He said the U.S. had successfully demined the strait and accused Iran of continuing to fire on commercial vessels attempting to transit the waterway.
Earlier this week, two tanker vessels, the Saudi-flagged Sidr and the Liberian-flagged Senegal Prosperity, were hit by unknown projectiles within minutes of each other while transiting the strait.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported Wednesday that the incident resulted in two deaths. The Foreign Ministry of Bahrain confirmed that the two people killed were Filipino sailors.
The tanker attack was condemned by several regional powers on Wednesday, including Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. Rubio confirmed that the U.S. economic pressure campaign against Iran would continue at full force.
Iran’s strikes on U.S. targets, along with Iran’s attacks on an American air base in Jordan earlier this week, sparked U.S. attacks on Iranian targets Tuesday.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement Tuesday evening that it had targeted “air defense sites, radar systems, [and] maritime assets.”
Reports from state-affiliated media in Iran indicated that the U.S. bombed sites near the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, Konarak, Chabahar, Qeshm Island and Sirik.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said one of the U.S. strikes hit a wedding party in Kuhestak, killing and wounding more than 50 people.
CENTCOM denied targeting civilians in a statement but did not specifically deny the accusation that a U.S. strike resulted in civilian casualties.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who announced Operation Economic Outcast last week, warned Wednesday that Washington was considering expanding its sanctions regime to target airlines, maritime organizations and digital assets.
“We all want this conflict to end, and the fastest way for the conflict to end is for no one to provide any support to this regime. We are going to sever every tie that they have,” he told Fox News.
On the military front, Iran’s retaliatory strikes began Tuesday evening and lasted into Wednesday.
The Jordanian Defense Ministry confirmed that 13 missiles entered the nation’s airspace from Iran, targeting the King Hussein and Al-Azraq air bases. Three impacts were detected, but Jordanian authorities said the missiles crashed in remote areas and caused no damage.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said an attack on a Marine Corps training facility in Jordan known as Camp Titin killed several U.S. service members. The claim was denied by Jordanian and U.S. authorities, who said there were no American casualties.
The IRGC also targeted the Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Iranian officials said the strikes were intended to hit U.S. forces and destroy radar facilities.
Neither U.S. nor Bahraini officials confirmed the strike.
Iran also reportedly launched drones at Kuwait, but all were intercepted.
The Trump administration’s expanded sanctions regime is intended to squeeze Iran out of its economic relationships with other countries by threatening to cut off nations from the U.S. dollar system.
Thus far, the U.S. has targeted dozens of individuals and entities with ties to Tehran but has stopped short of targeting many of the economic institutions that provide Iran with access to the world economy despite heavy sanctions.
However, the Treasury did announce sanctions last week on the UAE branch of one of Egypt’s state-owned banks. Major state-run banks in China, Russia, Turkey and Pakistan have so far been untouched by secondary sanctions.
The U.S. is also maintaining a naval blockade of Iran’s ports, limiting Tehran’s opportunities to export its oil.
The blockade was conceived in response to Iran’s own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway connecting the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. Tehran has largely maintained the blockade since March.
Approximately 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade and roughly 19% of the global liquefied natural gas trade pass through the strait, according to the International Energy Agency, and its closure has rocked international energy prices. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, stood at approximately $96 per barrel Wednesday, compared with $83 per barrel in early August.
The U.S. has worked consistently to reopen the waterway, often using military force.
Mr. Trump has said the strait is completely open for business, but traffic has remained well below prewar levels and tankers are often forced to travel at night to avoid being hit by Iranian drones or missiles.
Average crude oil departures through the strait passed 7.5 million barrels a day Wednesday, according to data cited by maritime intelligence firm TankerTrackers. That was well below the 17.67 million barrels a day that passed in February.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.