War: latest news. US launches new wave of raids in Iran. Pasdaran: Strait of Hormuz closed until the attacks end

Tehran has no intention of entering into talks with the United States and is focused exclusively on the country’s defence. This was stated to journalists by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, who explained that Tehran will honour its international commitments only if the Americans do the same. This was reported by Al Jazeera. “Our commitments remain valid only as long as the other party honours its own commitments,” said Baghaei, adding that Iran had abandoned its commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding after the US failed to fulfil its part of the agreement. “After the other party breached its obligations, we too refrained from implementing ours in any area where this was required,” he added.

New missiles have struck the island of Hengam in the Strait of Hormuz. This was reported by the Iranian news agency Mehr, which added that the governor’s office of Hormuzgan Province, where the island is located, has stated that it will provide further details on the US missile strikes. According to information reported by Mehr, two explosions were heard on Hengam. Hengam is situated two kilometres south of the island of Qeshm: explosions were also reported on this island, but according to Mehr, they were not caused by air strikes.

The Iranian Ministry of Education has postponed exams for students in six provinces following renewed US attacks. The ministry stated that final exams for all courses of study in the final year of higher education have been postponed. The exams were due to take place tomorrow and on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera. The ministry had previously announced that it had moved examination centres located near sensitive or military sites to safer locations.

In recent days, US air strikes have killed more than 35 people and injured over 300, according to Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Health. He added that at least 72 people are currently in hospital. Kermanpour did not provide a breakdown of the figures between civilians and combatants. The announcement represents the first overall toll provided by the Iranian authorities for this phase of the clashes. The number of injured is far higher than in any other recent clash between Iran and the United States.

The US Central Command (Centcom) has announced that on Wednesday it carried out a series of strikes on Greater Tunb Island, within Iranian territory, targeting defence and missile sites. The operation, which began at 7.30 am US Eastern Time, used precision-guided munitions against coastal defence systems and cruise missile depots. According to Centcom, the raids are said to have reduced Iran’s ability to target commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

A meeting between Lebanese, Israeli and American military delegations is due to take place on Friday. The venue has not yet been announced. This is according to Sky News Arabia.

The US armed forces have stated that they diverted two merchant ships attempting to enter Iranian ports after re-imposing the naval blockade 17 hours earlier. This was reported by Iran International. US Central Command stated that the ships had attempted to “circumvent the blockade” and that US forces remain “vigilant and ready to ensure full compliance with the blockade”.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has arrived in Doha amidst the latest military escalation between Tehran and Washington. This has been reported by media outlets in the Islamic Republic, which state that the purpose of Araghchi’s visit is to express his condolences to the Qatari authorities on the death of the former Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa, whose death was announced on Sunday. On the same day, Iran claimed responsibility for attacks on US military targets in Qatar. Specifically, the Revolutionary Guards announced that they had attacked the US base at Al-Ubeid with ballistic missiles. Qatar is one of the mediating countries which, alongside Pakistan and Oman, are attempting to resolve the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States through diplomacy.

The head of the Centre for Public Relations and Information at the Iranian Ministry of Health, Hossein Kermanpour, stated on X that over 260 people had been injured in the latest wave of US attacks against the country. “In the latest wave of warmongering against our country, Iran, more than 260 people have so far been injured, including 3 women and 6 minors under the age of 18. Unfortunately, two of the victims are women; 222 of the injured have been treated and discharged,” Kermanpour said in a post on X.

Centcom, the US Central Command, has announced that it has completed the latest wave of strikes against Iranian targets, which has “further weakened Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”. Speaking to ‘X’, Centcom said it had “fired precision munitions at coastal defence systems and sites used for the storage and launch of cruise missiles on Greater Tunb Island for 90 minutes”.

Iran has threatened to block further trade routes in the region, whilst the United States has launched a new wave of attacks against military targets. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have stated that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States puts an end to its “acts of aggression”, adding that other regional routes for the export of oil and gas could also be closed.

The warning came as the US Central Command (Centcom) stated that it had carried out drone, air and naval strikes against Iran this morning, in addition to a seven-hour operation overnight.

The meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump is likely to take place on Monday at the White House, according to the newspaper Ynet, which cites Israeli sources.

The United States completed the latest round of attacks on Iran at 1.30 pm Italian time. This was announced by US Central Command, which emphasised that the raids targeted Greater Tunb Island.

FOTO D'ARCHIVIO: Navi nello Stretto di Hormuz, viste da Musandam, Oman, 18 giugno 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/Foto d'archivio

US President Donald Trump held a meeting in the Situation Room on Tuesday to discuss an offensive in Iran on a far larger scale than the current attacks around the Strait of Hormuz. This was reported by Axios, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter, according to whom the tycoon appears willing to escalate the conflict to inflict sufficient damage to compel the regime in Tehran to open the strait and accept his demands on the nuclear issue. Trump convened the meeting whilst the US military was carrying out attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and along Iran’s southern coast for the fourth consecutive day. According to the sources, the meeting focused on new plans to carry out devastating strikes against strategic targets in Iran, in addition to attacks on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz.

Il presidente degli Stati Uniti Donald Trump parla con il primo ministro iracheno Ali al-Zaidi (non presente nella foto) durante il loro incontro nello Studio Ovale della Casa Bianca a Washington, DC, USA, il 14 luglio 2026. Si tratta del primo viaggio all’estero di Ali al-Zaidi da quando è entrato in carica nel maggio 2026. EPA/GRAEME SLOAN / POOL

The Strait of Hormuz remains closed and, in the last 24 hours, at least two ships have been stopped following warning shots fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. This is according to Tasnim, the news agency linked to the Pasdaran.

“At 6 am (midday in Italia, ed.) today, forces under the US Central Command began launching a wave of attacks against Iran. The attacks are designed to further degrade the military capabilities that Iranian forces have used to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz,” the Central Command itself announced on X.

Bahrain’s air defences intercepted and destroyed several missiles and drones launched by Iran against the country in the early hours of today. This was announced by the Bahrain Defence Force, which stated that the air defence systems had successfully neutralised all incoming threats. In a statement, the military authorities condemned the Iranian attacks on civilians, assuring the public that the armed forces remain on the highest level of alert. The public has been urged not to approach any suspicious objects or debris linked to the attacks and to report them immediately to the authorities. The statement added that military engineering teams are ready to intervene to secure and remove the remains of the ordnance.

Seven soldiers have been killed in south-eastern Iran following US strikes on Bampur, according to Iranian media reports. According to Iranian state television, the soldiers were members of the 388th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, who were stationed at a barracks in Bampur, in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan, in south-eastern Iran. The broadcaster also reported that the US fired at least 13 missiles during the attack and that the dead included both conscripts and career soldiers, whilst numerous other soldiers were wounded. The army has stated that it will deliver “a decisive response to this aggressive action by the American enemy”, the state television channel added.

A man has been executed in the city of Isfahan on charges of having “set fire to the governorate headquarters and a police station and damaged public property” in Dahaghan, in Isfahan province, during the January protests in Iran. This was reported by the Fars news agency, citing a statement from the judiciary. ‘The verdict against Mohammad Amini Dahaghani was handed down on the basis of CCTV footage and his confessions,’ the statement reads, adding that the man had incited others to attack the police station during the protests on 9 January.

An Iranian government spokesperson stated today, in a post on X, that more than 30 civilians have died in recent US attacks in southern Iran. “More than 30 civilians have lost their lives in the attacks that have struck the southern regions of the country in recent days,” said Fatemeh Mohajerani. This was reported by Iran International.

A two-day event aimed at enabling Israel and Lebanon to reach an agreement. On Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 July, Rome is hosting the sixth round of direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel. The previous five rounds were hosted in Washington. This time, the meetings between the delegations are taking place at the US Embassy. The new round of talks in the capital was announced in recent days by the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, during a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

US President Donald Trump held a meeting on Tuesday in the White House Situation Room to discuss large-scale attacks against Iran, on a greater scale than the current operations in the Strait of Hormuz. This was reported by Axios, citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to reports, the senior officials present at the meeting included the Vice-President of the United States, JD Vance, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth.

The US has expanded sanctions against Iran’s oil sector, targeting in particular the network of oil transport magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, according to the Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the department has also frozen $130 million held in digital wallets linked to the Iranian central bank, hitting a sector that has seen an intensification of activity since the start of the war. The decision came after US forces carried out attacks against Iran for the fourth consecutive day and reimposed the naval blockade, with Iran in turn striking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Maritime Organisation.

The United Kingdom has accused the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of being involved in a series of attacks in Europe and has summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires in London, Ali Nasimfar. This was stated by the Foreign Office in London.

“The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires in London today in response to the role played by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in directing affiliated groups (proxies) responsible for a series of attacks in Europe,” reads a statement issued by the ministry yesterday.

Donald Trump has threatened to escalate US attacks against Iran next week, targeting power stations and bridges, if Tehran does not agree to a deal on the Strait of Hormuz. “Next week, things will get really tough for them, because it will be the turn of the power stations. It will be the turn of the bridges,” the US President said in an interview with Fox News. “We will destroy all their power stations. We will destroy all their bridges, unless they sit down at the negotiating table.”

US President Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox News, did not rule out a ground campaign in Iran. When asked by the interviewer whether he would rule out a ground campaign on Kharg Island, Trump replied: “No, I wouldn’t say no if I thought it was appropriate. Sometimes a ground campaign is necessary, but we have other people who would carry it out for us; however, we have already struck the island of Kharg twice – in fact, three times. I said, ‘Strike everything but the oil’.”

Further reading

Latest war news. Trump: ‘Trade deals with Gulf countries instead of the 20 per cent tariff’

14 July 2026

The US Central Command (Centcom) has announced that it has struck dozens of Iranian targets during the latest wave of night-time air strikes against the Islamic Republic, whilst reimposing a naval blockade on Iran.

According to CENTCOM, the US armed forces struck “missile and drone launch sites, naval capabilities and coastal defence systems during the seven-hour wave of attacks, with the aim of further reducing Iran’s ability to threaten commercial maritime traffic and civilian crews”.

The Revolutionary Guards, an Iranian paramilitary force, said in a statement carried by state television that Iran had struck US Fifth Fleet facilities in Bahrain in attacks over the past few hours. “The US Fifth Fleet’s NSI operations centre, the command and control centre, large depots containing military parts and equipment, and the fleet’s fuel depots located in Bahrain have been struck and destroyed,” the Pasdaran reported.

Jordan’s air defence systems intercepted three ballistic missiles launched from Iran this morning. This was reported by the Reuters news agency, citing the Amman-based armed forces.

Earlier today, the Iranian army had stated that it had attacked the US air base at al-Azraq, in Jordan, using drones. Subsequently, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that, following the attack on the base, the hangars housing F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, as well as several MQ-9 drones, had been destroyed.

- The US blockade of Iranian ships and ports has come into effect. This was announced by US Central Command, which emphasised that there are 20 warships and hundreds of US military aircraft operating in the Middle East. “US forces remain vigilant, lethal and ready,” US Central Command emphasised.

Attacks on Iran “will continue until I say enough is enough”. Donald Trump made this statement in an interview with Fox, emphasising that “sooner or later” the United States will strike targets in the energy sector. “I’ll leave the energy sector until last. Next week we’ll strike power stations and bridges,” Trump emphasised.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced today that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the end of US “acts of aggression”, according to a statement broadcast by the Iranian state television channel IRIB. Yesterday, Washington launched a new series of attacks against Iran and resumed the blockade of its ports. “The fighters’ retaliatory operations will continue and the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States ceases its acts of aggression,” the IRGC stated.