US launches fresh strikes on Iran as Trump warns Tehran it ‘better behave’

The US said it had launched a fresh wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday as President Donald Trump warned Tehran it “better behave”.

The US military said “Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels” moving through the Strait of Hormuz had been targeted. Air defences also sounded in the capital Tehran, according to state media.

Iran meanwhile said it had struck US military targets in the region, including in Bahrain and Kuwait, as a fifth day of renewed hostilities strained their preliminary deal to end the war.

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told state media Tehran had “no reason” to abide by the deal if it did not benefit from it.

Trump had threatened late on Tuesday to attack bridges and power plants should Iran not return to talks next week.

Asked by reporters late on Wednesday whether he would give a deadline before doing so, he responded: “I ‌don’t like giving ​deadlines, but they pretty ⁠much know, they know ​the story… ​they ​better ​behave.”

He later told delegates at a defence summit that Iran was “not happy right now”.

“They want to settle so badly. They don’t like what we’re doing,” he said. “We’ll find out whether we want to settle with them or if we just finish it off.”

Ghalibaf, however, said Iran’s national security depended on Tehran maintaining “Iranian arrangements” in the strait.

He added that negotiation – along with war – was part of Iran’s strategy of resistance as it engaged an “existential” conflict with the US.

A previous threat by Trump in April to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure drew condemnation at the time from UN human rights chief Volker Türk, who said it would be a war crime.

Despite the renewed fighting, Trump welcomed what he saw as a potential olive branch from Tehran in freeing an American detainee that the US president said had been “wrongfully detained” in December 2024.

“She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump wrote on Wednesday evening on his Truth Social social media platform. “The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!”

The woman, Dena Karari, was on her way back to the US, according to her attorney, Jared Genser, in a post on X.

The latest US strikes marked the second wave its military said it had carried out during daylight hours on Wednesday. It said it had “further degraded Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz” earlier in the day, and that it had also fired on a ship attempting to violate its renewed blockade of Iran’s ports.

A 90-minute wave targeted Iran’s coastal defences and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island, US Central Command (Centcom) added.

At 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday, Centcom said the second wave of US attacks had been completed.

Its statement said the US had hit Iranian “command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities”, including in Bandar Abbas, an Iranian city on the Strait of Hormuz.

In addition to the air defences sounding in Tehran, state media reported that in Ahvaz, near the head of the Gulf, a hospital was evacuated due to nearby missile strikes.

In response to the US strikes, Iran said it had targeted US army communication systems and storage facilities in Jordan using drones, state media reported. Jordanian state media reported that its military had intercepted eight drones and that the attack led to no injuries or material damage.

Centcom also said it had redirected two commercial vessels since reimposing its blockade on Iranian ports on Tuesday evening, which stops vessels from transiting to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas.

The blockade had previously been lifted as part of a deal that was struck by the two countries last month – known as a memorandum of understanding – that aimed to end the months-long conflict.

However, a dispute over the strait has become a key point of contention.

In response to the renewal of the US blockade, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned the US that it should “expect the closure of other oil and gas export routes that serve the interests of the United States and its allies”. It did not elaborate on which routes could be affected.

Ongoing US-Iran hostilities have underscored the strategic importance of the Strait to the global economy, with a sharp rise in oil prices triggered by tanker traffic virtually stalling through the key shipping lane.