• US president says he is ‘losing patience’ with Tehran; tells cabinet ‘we just want to win’
• Only four vessels clear Hormuz as IRGC claim strikes on two tankers moving under US escort
• Baghdad says it was not told of US-Saudi strikes on its territory
• Iran distances itself from Egypt port attack

TEHRAN / WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has dismissed the prospect of an early ceasefire with Iran, saying “we just want to win” and warning Americans to expect further strikes across the Middle East.

Speaking at a televised cabinet meeting at Camp David, Trump said the campaign against Tehran was succeeding and would intensify. “We’ll be hitting them, we’ll be hitting them very hard,” he said when asked what the coming four weeks might bring. “At some point they’re going to say ‘we just can’t take it anymore.’”

Pressed on a military proposal to “go big” against Iran within two weeks, he replied: “We’re going big, we’ve already gone big.”

He compared the war to Vietnam to argue it had been swift, contrasting five months of US operations against Iran with 20 years of American involvement in the earlier conflict. “We have obliterated their military capacity. Again, they’ve got some left, but soon they won’t have some left,” he said, adding that Iran’s manufacturing capacity was “almost gone”.

On the prospects for negotiations, Trump was dismissive. “They always want to talk, but they break their word so often,” he said. “I’m losing faith in them, because they do lie. The five missiles they shot, we knocked them down, but we were in the midst of a negotiation.”

Asked how many more strikes would be needed, he said: “Well, you never know. Most people would have given up by now.”

He also announced what he called an unprecedented investment in the armed forces, saying he looked forward to “getting Pete [Hegseth] $1.5 trillion next year”.

In a separate interview with Fox News, Trump said the war was “going well”. “We’re hitting them hard, knocking them out for a loop, and we just keep winning. Eventually they’ll have no choice but to go home,” he said.

Iran insists Hormuz ‘closed’

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had struck two oil tankers attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under the “air escort” of the US military, AFP reported. The IRGC said the “non-compliant oil tankers… were struck and brought to a halt, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous positions”.

Iranian armed forces rejected assertions by US Central Command that shipping was continuing normally. “The Strait of Hormuz is CLOSED, and any passage will be possible only in coordination with Iranian naval forces,” state-run IRIB quoted them as saying, adding that Centcom was falsely claiming shipping companies could cross under US military escort.

Traffic thins to a trickle

Ship-tracking data pointed to a near-total collapse in movement through the waterway. Two very large crude carriers (VLCCs) loaded in the Gulf exited the strait, Reuters reported citing Kpler data.

The Spain B, carrying crude loaded at the Saudi port of Ras Tanura on July 12, is anchored off Fujairah in the UAE. The Noble, which loaded Iraqi Basrah crude on July 25, is heading to China. Each is carrying about two million barrels. They were among only four commodities vessels to transit the strait, all of which exited.

A day earlier, just two vessels transited Hormuz, both in ballast and both entering. Over the same period, 25 commodities vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, 18 entering and seven exiting, including two VLCCs, one Suezmax and five Aframax tankers. Ships sailing with their transponders switched off are not included in the counts.

Baghdad ‘kept in the dark’

In Iraq, the government said US-Saudi air strikes on the Popular Mobilisation Forces were carried out without its knowledge. “The government had no prior knowledge of the attacks carried out on Iraqi territory,” spokesman Haider al-Aboudi told the state-owned Iraqi News Agency late on Thursday

Baghdad “has not granted any approval to carry out attacks on specific sites or targeted groups within Iraqi territory”, he added.

Washington and Riyadh said on Wednesday they had struck Iran-backed militants in Iraq in response to recent attacks on the Gulf kingdom. The bodies of five IRGC members killed in those strikes have since been repatriated through the Mehran border crossing in western Ilam province, AFP reported.

Concern that the conflict is spreading beyond the Gulf grew after a drone attack on vessels at Egypt’s Damietta port. No party has claimed responsibility.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi moved to distance Tehran from the incident. “Egypt is an important friend and partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to us,” he wrote on X, according to Reuters.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2026