• US says strikes response to attempted attacks on tankers leaving Hormuz; Trump warns of ‘bigger’ strikes if Tehran retaliates
• Iran launches missiles, drones after Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, Qeshm struck
• SCO assured Iran to reciprocate if US honours interim deal

WASHINGTON/DUBAI: Even as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian extended an olive branch to Washington, asking it to return to the June deal, parts of southern Iran were rocked by explosions on Tuesday night when US forces attacked targets near the Strait of Hormuz in response to “recent attempted attacks” on shipping.

The fresh attacks, including one at a wedding ceremony in Hormozgan province of Iran, came after reports that two tankers leaving the waterway were hit, with US President Donald Trump warning of ‘bigger’ strikes in case of another retaliation by Tehran.

Hormozgan Deputy Governor Ahmad Nafisi told state television at least “two people were reported martyred and a number of others wounded when a residential home was attacked while people were holding a wedding ceremony.”

The US military earlier said that at 1600 GMT it began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran. “The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region,” Centcom posted on X.

US President Trump said the latest US attack on Iran was “justified”. In a Truth Social post, he said the US military was striking Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Iran’s “failed attempt at adding sea mines” to the strait and for shooting eight missiles at a US military base in Jordan.

According to Iran’s state broadcaster, there had been reports of explosions on Iran’s Qeshm Island, on the northern side of the strait. The state-linked news agency 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.

“Multiple explosions heard in the east of Bandar Abbas and around Qeshm Island,” state TV said.

According to Iran’s Fars news agency, the Iran Guards said the US would regret new strikes, declaring that the attacks would only ‘tighten the lock’ on the strait.

Within hours of the reported US strikes, according to Iranian media, Iran began a retaliatory operation, saying missiles and drones had been launched from Iran. Jordan’s state TV, meanwhile, reported alarm sirens were activated in Mafraq and Aqaba governorates, after Iran launched attacks against US interests and bases in the region in retaliation.

Iran extends olive branch

Prior to the strikes, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would reciprocate immediately if Washington honoured its commitments under a June Memorandum of Understanding that was intended to halt the conflict.

The MoU declared an end to fighting that has now killed thousands in Iran and Lebanon since US and Israeli strikes began on February 28. But it also deferred many of the most difficult issues and paved the way for a broader 60-day negotiation period — which passed without further agreement.

“I am stating clearly that if the US returns to its commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate,” President Pezeshkian said in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which includes Russia and China.

But Iranian officials have shown no public sign of bowing to pressure.

“If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil,” Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was quoted as saying by Iranian media. If the US intensified its “siege”, he said Tehran would respond militarily.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference in Tehran that Washington was “addicted to making excessive demands and has mistaken negotiations for dictating terms”.

“As long as they act in this manner, they will certainly get no result other than what they have achieved so far,” he added, warning that Tehran would “use all our capabilities, whether on the battlefield or through our diplomatic apparatus”.

It may be noted that the six-month-old conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before the weekend strikes, in which US forces attacked Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday and Iran responded by launching missiles at two US air bases in Jordan.

Although he warned of a US response to the Iranian strikes, Trump also told reporters that they did not signal a return to full-scale war, and a senior Iranian source told Reuters they were a “limited and contained confrontation”. But pledges by both sides to respond to further attacks have highlighted how quickly a conflict that has increasingly been fought through sanctions, blockades and economic pressure could spill back into military action.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2026