President Donald Trump announced that the United States attacked Iran‘s Kharg Island overnight in retaliation against Tehran‘s attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. He also threatened that the U.S. could capture Kharg Island after claiming the 60-day ceasefire was over.“We attacked Kharg Island last night, knocked out a piece,” Trump said Wednesday during a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the annual NATO summit. “I said, ‘Don’t touch the oil, because maybe we’ll take over Kharg Island.’“There’s not a thing they can do about it. But I said, ‘Don’t hit the pipes, just hit everything else,’ and they hit it. They may hit it again tonight.”
Until Trump’s comments, it was not clear that the U.S. had struck Kharg Island, in addition to the attack on the Strait of Hormuz.The president’s comments came more than 30 minutes into the press conference with Zelensky and hours after an earlier press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, during which he declared, “It’s just a waste of time dealing with” Iranian negotiators.Trump repeatedly dodged when reporters asked whether the ending of the ceasefire would lead to a U.S. military operation against Iran, but he eventually clarified that a naval blockade and other attacks could be reimplemented.“We may put it back, the blockade, and it’ll only be a blockade for Iran,” Trump said. “Anybody else can have whatever they want.”“They have desalination plants — we’ll take them out if we have to,” Trump also said. “That’s probably the one I would like not to do least.”TRUMP SAYS IRAN CEASEFIRE IS ‘OVER’: ‘THEY’RE SCUM. THEY’RE SICK PEOPLE’War Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s comments by telling reporters that “tonight, if we need to, on your order, Mr. President, we will hit even more and even deeper.”It is unclear the exact state of negotiations between Tehran and Washington or whether the memorandum of understanding between the two nations is effectively null and void.
