Washington: President Donald Trump said on Thursday that US forces dealt “great damage” to Iranian targets after three American naval destroyers came under fire, but was nonetheless still open to a deal with Tehran.
“There was no damage done to the three Destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers,” he said on his Truth Social platform, colorfully describing drones falling “like a butterfly dropping to its grave!”
“We’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their Deal signed, FAST!” he added.
Meanwhile, Iran’s central military command accused the United States of violating the ceasefire in the Middle East war with attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, saying they attacked US forces in retaliation.
The US “targeted an Iranian oil tanker moving from the coastal waters of Iran in the Jask region towards the Strait of Hormuz, as well as another ship entering the Strait of Hormuz opposite the port of Fujairah, UAE”, the Khatam Al Anbiya said in a statement quoted by state TV, accusing the US of also carrying out strikes elsewhere in the south “in cooperation with some countries in the region”.
Iranian forces “immediately and in retaliation attacked American military vessels”, it added.