US to continue targeting Iran if Hormuz shipping is threatened: Envoy to UN

The US will continue to target Iran’s military infrastructure if Tehran threatens international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

“If the Iranian regime thinks for a second that President (Donald) Trump is going to sit by, stand by, while Iran continues to attack international shipping without a response, or our bases without a response, they’re sadly mistaken, and they saw that loud and clear over the last few nights,” Waltz said.

He added that the US would “continue to, militarily, if needed, take down their infrastructure that they’re trying to use to illegally control an international waterway.”

Waltz also said technical discussions between Washington and Tehran remain underway, adding that Trump “will always give diplomacy a chance,” but “the president’s patience isn’t going to last forever.”

“Don’t think for a second that President Trump isn’t going to leave every option on the table to achieve not just our aim, the entire world’s aim that Iran never has a nuke,” he added.

On Saturday, the US military’s Central Command said that it had carried out strikes against multiple targets in Iran after Tehran’s latest attack on a commercial ship near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, for its part, said it launched missile and drone strikes targeting eight US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain in response to the US attacks.

On June 18, the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at reaching a lasting peace agreement, and started talks on June 21 to implement its provisions and end their war.