President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that Iran "will have to pay the price" for delaying negotiations, as Tehran announced it would reconsider diplomatic engagement with Washington following a night of tit-for-tat strikes.
Iran launched missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain in what it called retaliation for American strikes on Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz.
The exchange of fire, which came after Trump said Iran had downed a U.S. Apache helicopter near the strait, marks one of the most significant escalations since Washington and Tehran agreed to a cease-fire in April.
"Iran is all talk and no action," Trump said in a social media post Wednesday morning. "They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!"
The U.S. military said it had targeted Iranian air defences, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites in what it described as a "proportional response" to the downing of the helicopter, whose two crew members were rescued.
