White House signals Trump weighing new strikes on Iran

The White House signaled Friday that President Donald Trump is considering launching new military strikes against Iran as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz continue to intensify, with Iran's Revolutionary Guard claiming it struck two more oil tankers attempting to transit the critical waterway.

Fresh Warnings From the White House

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Tehran of breaking a memorandum of understanding signed with the United States last month, which was meant to halt military operations and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. "President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behavior to occur," Leavitt said Friday. "Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way."thehill

Trump himself told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David that "we just want to win" and signaled military action would continue. "We'll be hitting them very hard," he said. "You know, at some point they're going to say, 'We just can't take it anymore.'"thehill

Strait of Hormuz Under Siege

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday it struck and halted two oil tankers that attempted to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. military air escort, claiming they traveled an "unauthorized route." Four additional tankers turned back after the incident, according to the IRGC. The attacks represent the latest in a pattern of Iranian aggression against commercial shipping; the BBC reported last week that Iran had attacked more than 30 commercial vessels passing through the strait over the past three months.iranintl+1

Kuwait's Defense Ministry said its armed forces shot down Iranian drones inside Kuwaiti airspace Friday, after Iran targeted military facilities hosting U.S. forces in retaliation for American strikes the previous day.thehill

The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in June to halt military operations and reopen the strait, but Trump declared the ceasefire "over" after Iranian attacks on ships resumed.bbc

Warnings of Wider Conflict

Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, warned on Bloomberg that a new U.S. attack on Iran could trigger a "major and drastic" expansion of the conflict. Miller said a limited bombing campaign is unlikely to change Tehran's calculations, while renewed escalation would make progress toward a Gaza ceasefire even less likely.bloomberg

Miller has argued more broadly that Iran's most powerful leverage lies not in matching American firepower but in its geographic proximity to Gulf states, shipping lanes, and energy infrastructure — allowing it to create global consequences without needing military parity with the United States.jewsunitedfordemocracy

The conflict's trajectory now hinges on whether the administration's pressure campaign forces Iran back to negotiations or instead triggers the wider regional war that analysts like Miller have warned about.