Up to US to prevent further war, says Iran following fresh strikes

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IRAN’S chief negotiator said it is up to the US to prevent renewed war today after Washington conducted strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Tehran had delivered a “firm and rational response” to the US attack on Monday, but did not elaborate, adding that Iran remained ready “for battle with its finger on the trigger.”

“If Washington makes another strategic miscalculation, it should know that this time it will face a new battlefield and will find itself even more desperate than it is today,” he said.

Iranian state media reported explosions on Monday evening on the islands of Qeshm and Hengam in the Strait of Hormuz, and in the nearby mainland area of Bandar Abbas.

Unlike earlier in the war, the strikes were not publicly announced.

But a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strikes targeted Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against the US in the strait.

The move came as Iran said it had a two-day plan to reopen the waterway, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply flowed during peacetime, and resume nuclear talks with the US.

President Donald Trump had previously said the US would not launch strikes before the midterms.

Following the attack, he told Fox News: “I’m not looking to kill lots of people, but if we have to, we’ll have to… It’s just a minor attack. It wasn’t war.

“They built an anti-aircraft facility. It took them about two months. We watched it get built, as soon as it was completed, we hit it last night very nicely.”

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said a return to war would benefit “no-one,” and that Tehran was still trying to resolve the crisis “through dialogue.”

Meanwhile, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei said Washington must respond to Tehran’s demands before the strait can be fully reopened, saying: “America’s response to Iran���s rights and demands was not convincing, and they must fully and explicitly address Iran’s seven conditions and act upon them.”

Thousands of US troops remain in the waters off Iran to maintain a naval blockade aimed at preventing tankers carrying Iranian oil from reaching the global market.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for another wave of strikes after the US elections, according to sources.