The United States and Iran exchanged fire late on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire.
Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, as the US insisted it struck in retaliation.
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The US military said it targeted sites responsible for attacking three US warships transiting the strait, in what it called “unprovoked” hostilities by Tehran. Iran’s Press TV reported that after several hours of fire “the situation on Iranian islands and coastal cities by the strait of Hormuz is back to normal now”.
The skirmishes threw into question the viability of a shaky ceasefire that had largely held for the previous month. But Donald Trump, the US president, insisted it remained intact despite the strikes, which he described in an interview with ABC News as a “love tap”.
“They trifled with us today,” Trump told reporters, during an evening visit to the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC. “We blew them away. They trifled. I call that a trifle.” Asked where this left hopes of a negotiated end to the conflict, Trump said a deal “might not happen, but it could happen any day”.
“I believe they want the deal more than I do,” the US president claimed.
