Middle East crisis live: US going to hit Iran ‘hard’ again today, says Trump

Trump said the US was “really close” to reaching a deal with Iran but accused the Middle Eastern country of “playing us for suckers”.

Speaking to reporters, he said:

In case you missed it, in case you don’t turn on your television set and… we’ll see what happens with the deal.

We were we were really close to a deal. But they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers.

He added:

I’ve been working with Iran for a number of months, and they should sign that deal. It’s a good deal.

It doesn’t give them the right to have a nuclear weapon. In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon.

US president Donald Trump has said that the United States is going to attack Iran “very hard” if no peace deal is finalised.

“We’re going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard,” Trump told reporters at the White House, citing Iran’s downing of an Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz.

He added:

I guess we have the right to do that. You know, they shot down a very, very incredible, actually an incredible machine. And, at first they said they didn’t do it. Then they admitted they did it.

Iran’s ambassador in Vienna on Wednesday called a new resolution passed by the UN nuclear watchdog demanding access to Tehran’s nuclear sites “counter-productive” and an obstacle to talks with Washington.

Ambassador Reza Najafi told AFP the International Atomic Energy Agency resolution was “politically motivated” and “legally flawed”.

The vote “cannot help and, would be indeed counterproductive to the current situation,” he added. “It further complicates, the volatile, situation, volatile ceasefire, and the unfinished negotiations between Iran and the US.”

The UN nuclear watchdog’s governing board on Wednesday approved a western resolution demanding that Iran immediately provide information on its uranium stockpile and production facilities.

Iran’s nuclear sites have been targeted in US-Israel attacks and Iran has suspended access for International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

The resolution, drawn up by Britain, France, Germany and the United States, said it is “essential and urgent” that Iran “without delay” provides the IAEA with “complete information on nuclear material inventories and design information for facilities”.

The resolution – passed by 21 votes to three with 10 abstentions – also demanded that Iran “grant the agency all access it requires to verify this information”, said diplomats. One country on the 35-member board did not vote.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has warned of the risk of return to “full war” in the Middle East after Iran and the United States traded strikes.

“We should not minimise the risks of a lesser fire becoming full fire, or in another word – full war,” secretary-general Guterres said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in the region.

Smoke rises in southern Lebanon following an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel today.

The effective closure of the strait of Hormuz has led to global energy disruptions “never seen before”, said Wael Sawan, CEO of oil company Shell.

Speaking at a summit of business leaders hosted by the Wall Street Journal, he said more than 10% of global oil production has been removed from the market since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran. He added that about 20% of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) production is offline.

When asked for his thoughts on the prospect of reopening the strait of Hormuz, he replied: “It’s very difficult to call. What is clear is that the nature of the disruption to the global energy system is something like we have never seen before.”

He added that the blockade has been “particularly acute in Asia”, with countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand resorting to rationing fuel while Pakistan and the Philippines have implemented four-day working weeks.

“It has been disproportionately painful in Asia,” Sawan said.

Here are some of the latest images from southern Lebanon and northern Israel, as the Israeli military said it would continue its military campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported an airstrike on a village east of Tyre killed at least six people, while an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern city of Sidon killed two others.

Here is a video released by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) purporting to show missiles being fired at US military bases in the Gulf:

The Jordanian military said it had intercepted five Iranian missiles after the IRGC claimed to have targeted the Muwaffaq Salti airbase, which is known to host US F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft. Bahrain’s armed forces said it had shot down several Iranian drones and missiles, while the Kuwait army reported its air defences intercepted hostile targets.

In a subsequent post on Truth Social, Trump denounced “The Fake News Media” for refusing to report “how EFFECTIVE the US Naval BLOCKADE is”, describing it as “the most successful Blockade in the history of Naval Warfare”.

He wrote:

NOTHING GETS THROUGH unless we want it to. IT IS A STEEL WALL! Iran is doing ZERO business, not paying their military, or any of their bills, and quickly becoming a FAILED NATION! Lots of oil is getting out. Praise be to Allah!

It is a notable shift in tone after Trump expressed optimism yesterday that a deal could be reached with Iran in “two or three days” and that the strait of Hormuz would reopen “immediately” after.