New Delhi (India) July 9: President Donald Trump declared that the ceasefire with Iran was "over" but also offered to continue with negotiations, without expressing optimism about the prospects.
Trump Claims Iran Targets His Life
President Donald Trump said Iran wants to kill him and is on 'every list'. He said, “They want to take out the US leader, me. I'm on every list. I saw a thing this morning, I'm on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I've been a little bit lucky. But that maybe doesn't last very long."
Even at the funeral of former Iran supreme leader Ali Khamenei, mourners called for Trump's killing as well as that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.’ Posters calling for the killing of Trump and Netanyahu, and even chants similar to them were seen around the Grand Mosalla in Tehran, where Khamenei's funeral was held.
US Strikes Over 80 Iranian Sites
Trump's statement comes just hours after a new round of U.S. Military strikes on Iran targeting more than 80 sites. The US said it launched the new strikes in retaliation for Iranian attacks against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command said, “U.S. Central Command forces completed a new round of offensive strikes against Iran, July 7, hitting over 80 targets with precision munitions as an immediate response to Iran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz” in a statement.
“U.S. forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor,” it said.
IRGC Claims Retaliation Against US Assets
The strikes targeted coastal bases and civilian facilities in the southern Iranian provinces of Hormuzgan and Mahshar. Some of them also hit the Bandar Mashahr port in southwest Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said. In a statement, the IRGC warned that it had responded by targeting US assets in neighbouring countries as sirens could be heard in neighboring Bahrain and Kuwait.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said that the United States had violated the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding on the cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, and part of the MoU which includes the respect for the sovereignty of states. The Ministry also denounced the US Department of Treasury's decision to revoke waivers allowing Iran to sell oil and collect revenues for 60 days.