• Launches fresh overnight air strikes on Iran, hits Qeshm Island on Strait of Hormuz
• Iran retaliates against Gulf countries hosting US bases
• Trump says Iran has not ‘received enough pain yet’
• UN chief warns Mideast situation on ‘edge of the unimaginable’
DUBAI: US President Donald Trump promised on Thursday “major military punishment” and a “massive attack” against Iran and its Houthi allies, after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint.
Fears that disruption could widen further to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude rose more than six per cent, breaking through $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
Two weeks since the effective collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the US military launched another round of air strikes on Iran overnight into Thursday, prompting Iran to fire at neighbouring Arab countries that house US bases.
Iranian state media said a missile struck Qeshm Island on the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening, raising the prospect of a further night of attacks in a conflict well into its fifth month that has already killed thousands and raised fears of a global economic downturn.
“The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned. “One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” he told a meeting of the UN Security Council.
Iran hasn’t ‘received enough pain’
After the Houthis said they had struck the two tankers, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.
The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, said this week they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil per day by pipeline to the Red Sea to get around Iran’s blockade of Gulf oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
“If they do this again, the US will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He told news outlet Axios he was considering relaunching major combat operations in Iran and was close to a decision. “They haven’t received enough pain yet,” Axios quoted Trump as saying.
“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” the president said, not giving a deadline for his decision.
Trump added that Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to,” but said “we don’t need anybody” to launch a new operation against Iran.
Sources in Iran and Yemen told Reuters Tehran had flown Revolutionary Guard commanders, military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen days before the Houthis announced their blockade. The Houthis dismissed the report.
The Houthis said their forces had carried out missile and drone strikes on Saudi oil tankers, the Encelia and the Layla. A maritime security source said the Encelia had transmitted a distress call reporting it had been struck by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea just north of Yemen late on Wednesday. Saudi state news agency SPA said the strike had caused a fire at the bow.
Meanwhile, two Chinese supertankers carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Saudi Arabian oil exited the Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Thursday, shipping data showed, apparently escaping a blockade on shipments of Saudi oil by Houthis even as other Saudi vessels came under attack
Strikes on Jordan, Kuwait
Iran said it attacked US missile systems, weapons and fuel storage sites in Jordan, as well as US military posts in Kuwait.
Jordan’s army said it engaged four Iranian missiles and six drones in the past 24 hours, intercepting all but one missile, which fell in an uninhabited area.
IRGC said they struck a US electronic warfare unit at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri base, causing unspecified casualties, in response to an overnight strike on Iran’s Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq. Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said Iran would keep retaliating as long as the US continued to attack its infrastructure and coastal areas, Iranian state TV reported.
Meanwhile, four people familiar with US intelligence said Iranian strikes on CIA targets earlier in the war had prompted US intelligence to probe whether Russia was assisting Iran with targeting information or drone technology.
Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2026