The Joint Maritime Information Center again raised the threat level in the Strait of Hormuz to severe after renewed clashes between the U.S. and Iran.
It is the second-highest level in the NGO's scale, only behind critical. It had been lowered to substantial after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war and kick off nuclear negotiations.
The organization said vessels could face "deliberate hostile action" by Iran under current conditions. Tehran this week launched missiles at ships crossing the waterway through a route closer to the Omani coast, which does not approve of and is protected by the U.S. Navy. The country insists it's in control of the strait following the war with the U.S. and only ships that coordinate with its authorities.
President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran is over after the U.S. carried new attacks against the country in retaliation for Tehran's targeting of commercial ships in the key waterway.
Asked in Turkey, where he is attending a NATO summit, whether the ceasefire and the memorandum of understanding were over, he said: "It's a very interesting question to me. I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore."
He went on to describe Iran's leaders as "scum." "They're sick people. They're led by people, and they're vicious, violent people," Trump added, claiming that if Tehran managed to get a nuclear weapon, "they'd use it."
The president then said that he would allow negotiations to continue, but stressed he doesn't "care." "They can talk, but I think they're wasting their time. They're a bunch of lying guys."
The remarks came after U.S. forces launched strikes against Iran, with the Central Command (CENTCOM) saying it hit "over 80 targets with precision munitions as an immediate response to Iran's latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz."
"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 small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran's ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor," forces.
Trump later told press that the U.S. "attacked very powerfully last night the very dangerous people from Iran."
NATO Secretary Mark Rutte, who met with Trump on Wednesday, called the strikes "absolutely necessary."
The U.S. also revoked its temporary sanctions waiver allowing limited Iranian oil sales, ending a diplomatic concession that had been granted just weeks earlier as part the memorandum.
The sanctions waiver, issued on June 22, had temporarily authorized the production, delivery, and sale of Iranian crude oil as the Trump administration pursued a broader peace agreement following months of conflict in the region.
