ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Donald Trump on Monday said Iran's military has suffered significant losses and its economy is collapsing under mounting sanctions, while signaling a potential new counterstrike as Washington and Tehran entered a fresh round of hostilities over the weekend after a month of cautious calm.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump described the Iranian establishment as “failed,” adding that “they have no Navy, they have no Air Force, they have no currency, they are not paying their soldiers or police, Inflation is at 300%,” with leadership in "total disarray."
Earlier in the day, the US commander-in-chief told Fox News that "there will be a response" to Iran's Monday strikes against US bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"We are going to hit them hard," Trump said, adding that "Iranians want to meet so badly, but I am not sure they want to make a deal."
The US president's remarks come as Washington carried out airstrikes on Iran's Larak Island in the southern Hormozgan province late Sunday.
According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), US forces took "limited, precise action" against Iranian army "minelaying forces" that posed "an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz."
The strikes were conducted "to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce," CENTCOM added.
Tasnim News Agency, an outlet affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said late Monday that the death toll from the attack on Larak had risen to three.
For its part, the IRGC said in a statement that its aerospace force launched a "punitive counteroffensive," conducting a "synchronized missile-and-drone assault" on alleged US assets at the King Hussein and al-Azraq air bases in Jordan using ballistic missiles, claiming the strikes inflicted "heavy losses."
Meanwhile, the Iranian army said Monday that it "targeted locations housing US military helicopters and personnel at Al Minhad base in the United Arab Emirates with dozens of explosive drones," according to a statement carried by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
The army said the strike was carried out "in response to the killing of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] and civilians" in a US attack on Iran's Larak Island on Sunday.
The US and Israel in late February launched a joint aerial campaign, striking thousands of targets across Iran over six weeks.
Tehran responded with drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets in Gulf Arab states and launching retaliatory strikes against Israel.
The two sides reached a preliminary ceasefire in early April, followed by the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in mid-June, which established a truce and set a 60-day window for negotiating a final agreement.
Despite the MoU, both sides have traded multiple rounds of strikes, with the latest escalation on July 8 before subsiding later that month and reigniting again on Sunday.
Meanwhile, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz remain elevated, with a US naval blockade on Iranian ports still in effect and Iran's continued claim of sovereignty over the waterway forcing commercial vessels to seek authorization for passage.
CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper said Friday that "over the past several months, US forces have assisted nearly 1,500 commercial vessels" transiting the Strait of Hormuz, adding that those ships carried nearly 750 million barrels of crude oil from Gulf countries to global energy markets.
At the same time, "no ships have entered or left an Iranian port without our permission, and we have only allowed ships to pass through on humanitarian grounds," Cooper said, affirming that Tehran "has exported zero oil from its shores since we resumed the naval blockade in mid-July."
The Command also said Monday that "as of [Sunday] Aug. 30, CENTCOM forces have redirected 83 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two to ensure compliance with the blockade."
