<\/p>\n
The U.S. military unleashed a new wave of strikes against Iran on Tuesday and revoked a license allowing the country to sell oil after three tankers were hit in the Strait of Hormuz, putting pressure on an already fragile ceasefire.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a day in which huge crowds mourned\u00a0Iran\u2019s slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the holy city of Qom, U.S. Central Command announced that it had begun a series of strikes intended to impose heavy costs. \u201cIran\u2019s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire,\u201d CENTCOM said on X.\n<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s media reported several explosions early on Wednesday local time in the southern port city of Sirik, Qeshm Island and Bandar Abbas, but provided no immediate details on the cause of the blasts or any casualties or damage.\n<\/p>\n
The incidents were only the latest to threaten the ceasefire that the U.S. and\u00a0Iran\u00a0struck last month, pausing the conflict that started in February with U.S. and Israeli strikes across the Islamic Republic. \u00a0In a potentially major blow to that agreement, Washington moved on Tuesday to\u00a0withdraw a key concession that had allowed\u00a0Iran\u00a0to sell oil on international markets.\n<\/p>\n
Oil prices rose more than 3% after the U.S. said it was pulling the oil sales license.\n<\/p>\n
A U.S. official said earlier negotiators continued to work in good faith toward a final agreement with\u00a0Iran. But control of the strait has given Tehran immense leverage, effectively allowing it to force a stalemate with the world\u2019s most powerful military. Analysts say Tehran uses attacks on ships to underscore that leverage as it negotiates a long-term peace deal with the U.S.\n<\/p>\n
Under last month\u2019s\u00a0interim U.S.-Iran\u00a0agreement, the U.S. Treasury issued a June 22 general license to allow the sale of crude oil and petrochemical and petroleum products of\u00a0Iranian origin through August 21. In revoking that license on Tuesday, it gave\u00a0Iran\u00a0until July 17 to wind down any transactions.\n<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign ministry condemned the Treasury\u2019s move, saying the decision breached the framework agreement to end the war and adding that Washington would be responsible for the consequences.\n<\/p>\n
The ministry said early on Wednesday that\u00a0Iran\u00a0would take any measure it deemed necessary to safeguard its interests and national security.\n<\/p>\n
Qatar blamed\u00a0Iran\u00a0for attacking the vessels, including the\u00a0huge Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, the Al Rekayyat, which reported being struck overnight by a drone that caused a fire in its engine room. The crew were safe and being evacuated.\n<\/p>\n
A Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker, believed to be the supertanker Wedyan, was also damaged off Oman, maritime security sources said. The cause was not immediately clear.\n<\/p>\n
Qatar\u2019s foreign ministry said it had summoned\u00a0Iran\u2019s deputy ambassador and handed him a protest note following the attack on the tanker.\n<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign ministry said Qatar\u2019s accusations were perplexing and that Tehran was diligently fulfilling its commitments but asserted that commercial vessels faced risks for using routes not coordinated with\u00a0Iran.\n<\/p>\n
A second U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said initial indications were that\u00a0Iran\u00a0had fired at three commercial vessels.\n<\/p>\n
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS TAKE TO STREETS IN QOM\n<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s clerical rulers aim to install a permanent system to collect fees in what would amount to a huge shift of the balance of power in a region where Washington has long acted as guarantor of security.\n<\/p>\n
At home, the leadership has used the\u00a0mourning for Khamenei that began last week to show its control after Khamenei was killed with his daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law on the war\u2019s first day.\n<\/p>\n
The caskets of the slain leader and family were driven through the streets of the seminary city of Qom on Tuesday, where many hundreds of thousands of people carried flags and banners comparing Khamenei to revered Shi\u2019ite martyrs.\n<\/p>\n
In chants they vowed to avenge Khamenei. Some bore placards and banners reading \u201cKILL TRUMP\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
Later on Tuesday\u00a0Iranian state media showed what it said was footage of an airplane carrying Khamenei\u2019s coffin at the airport of the Shi\u2019ite holy shrine city of Najaf in neighbouring Iraq.\n<\/p>\n
TRUMP: \u2018MAKE A DEAL OR WE\u2019RE GOING TO FINISH THE JOB\u2019\n<\/p>\n
The war has been paused under the interim peace deal reached last month, intended to provide a 60-day period for negotiations on a permanent deal. A round of indirect talks in Qatar ended last week with no sign of headway towards a lasting peace.\n<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to resume bombing, most recently on Monday when he told reporters in the Oval Office: \u201cWe\u2019re either going to make a deal or we\u2019re going to finish the job\u2026.. We can knock down their bridges in one hour, we can knock out their energy supply.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that under the terms of the interim ceasefire memorandum, negotiations on the final deal would \u201cnot commence if threats continue\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
In launching the war four months ago, Trump said his aims were to destroy\u00a0Iran\u2019s nuclear and missile programs, end its ability to threaten its neighbours and create conditions for\u00a0Iranians to topple their leaders.\n<\/p>\n
None of those goals has been met, although Washington says a permanent deal will halt what it says is an\u00a0Iranian program that could make a nuclear bomb, which\u00a0Iran\u00a0says it never sought.\n<\/p>\n
This article was originally published at The Daily Signal. Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. military unleashed a new wave of strikes against Iran on Tuesday and revoked a license allowing the country to sell oil after three tankers were hit in the Strait of Hormuz, putting pressure on an already fragile ceasefire. Pray for your fellow intercessor. \u00a0 After a day in which huge crowds mourned\u00a0Iran\u2019s slain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1710,10065,3825,365,961,171],"class_list":["post-30263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-central","tag-command","tag-iran","tag-launches","tag-military","tag-strikes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}