White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has said that the US launched strikes on Iran after the latter violated the memorandum of understanding by firing on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, though she notes that Tehran is still talking to Washington.

“I’ve spoken with the president about this … Iran very much continues to talk to the United States of America and express that they want to make a deal with us because they are suffering devastating blows on behalf of our United States military,” she says in response to a question.

“The reason for the recent strikes over the course of the last several days is because Iran violated the memorandum of understanding that we struck with them,” she adds. “Specifically … they were not to fire on commercial vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz, and unfortunately, they have made the tragic decisions for them to do that.

Leavitt says, “President Trump is not going to sit by and allow these active acts of terrorism to take place in the strait without ensuring Iran pays consequences for that.”