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DUBAI\/WASHINGTON: The U.S. launched new \u200bair strikes on Iranian targets on Tuesday, quashing hopes that an exchange of fire last weekend might not presage a wider \u200crenewal of hostilities.<\/span><\/p>\n Oil prices had already risen after that first exchange of direct attacks since July and after reports of two tankers being hit leaving the Strait, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping.<\/span><\/p>\n Tehran remained defiant, warning that it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to hit Iran \u201chard\u201d \u200bin response to the renewed Iranian strikes, and a warning from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Washington was about to impose \u200bnew sanctions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToday at 12 p.m. ET (1600 GMT), U.S. forces began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran,\u201d U.S. Central \u2060Command posted on X. \u201cThe strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members \u200bdeployed to the region.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s state broadcaster said there had been reports of explosions on Iran\u2019s Qeshm Island, on the northern side of the strait.<\/span><\/p>\n The state-linked news \u200bagency Nour News said there had been reports of explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas and in Chabahar, a port on the southern coast.<\/span><\/p>\n The six-month-old conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before the weekend strikes, in which U.S. forces attacked Iran\u2019s Larak Island on Sunday and Iran responded by launching \u200bmissiles at two U.S. air bases in Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n Although he warned of a U.S. response to the Iranian strikes, Trump also told reporters on Monday that \u200bthey did not signal a return to full-scale war, and a senior Iranian source told Reuters they were a \u201climited and contained confrontation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n But pledges by both sides to respond \u200cto further \u2060attacks have highlighted how quickly a conflict that has increasingly been fought through sanctions, blockades and economic pressure could spill back into military action.<\/span><\/p>\n Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said early on Tuesday that Tehran would reciprocate immediately if Washington honoured its commitments under a June Memorandum of Understanding that was intended to halt the conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Well, they\u2019re taking them very seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n The MOU declared an end to fighting that has now killed thousands in Iran and Lebanon since U.S. and Israeli strikes began on February \u200b28. But it also deferred many of \u200bthe most difficult issues and paved \u2060the way for a broader 60-day negotiation period \u2014 which passed without further agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am stating clearly that if the U.S. returns to its commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate,\u201d Pezeshkian \u200bsaid in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which includes Russia and China.<\/span><\/p>\n But \u200bIranian officials have \u2060shown no public sign of bowing to pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil,\u201d Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted as saying by Iranian media. If the U.S. intensified its \u201csiege\u201d, he said Tehran would respond militarily.<\/span><\/p>\n Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil \u2060Baghaei told \u200ba press conference in Tehran that Washington was \u201caddicted to making excessive demands and has mistaken \u200bnegotiations for dictating terms\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\nSCALE OF RESUMPTION OF IRAN HOSTILITIES UNCLEAR<\/span><\/h2>\n