US and Iran cross-attacks for the first time since July

BarcelonaThe United States and Iran have exchanged attacks for the first time since the end of July, which shows that the war remains active. During the early hours of this Monday, Washington bombed two Iranian platforms on the island of Larak, located near the Strait of Hormuz, according to local media reports and confirmed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard itself. In a statement disseminated by the Iranian agencies Fars and Tasmin, the main military arm of the Islamic Republic specified that the attack was carried out with drones and left several dead and injured, although it did not specify how many. Tehran, in retaliation, responded to the attack by launching missiles against two U.S. bases in Jordan, a country allied with the U.S. in the region.

The "precision" attack by the United States military forces against the island of Larak destroyed two platforms for firing rockets loaded with naval mines which, according to a U.S. official told CNN, Iran was preparing to launch into the Strait of Hormuz. According to the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which stated on the social network X, the placement of these mines represented "an imminent threat" to the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump also spoke about the attack: he assured that Iran had already been warned that any vessel that placed new explosive devices in this maritime passage would be "immediately and systematically destroyed".

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that his country does not seek war but will respond to "aggression," following the cross-border attacks recorded overnight between the United States and Iran. "We do not seek war, and this is the clear message we have conveyed to the world [...] but we will never stand idly by in the face of aggression and will respond forcefully," Pezeshkian stated. Previously, a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard assured that this "terrorist aggression will be punished" and, in a subsequent statement, called the attack a "strategic and fatal mistake".

However, from the U.S., CENTCOM assured that the U.S. attack was not "an act of aggression," but a reaction to a detected threat. "In essence, Iran generated the threat and the U.S. military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce," it concluded.

As retaliation for Washington's bombing of the Iranian island of Larak, Iran's Revolutionary Guard has claimed to have attacked two US bases, Al-Azraq and Rey Hussein, in Jordan with missiles and drones. The attacks, which caused "great damage," were intercepted by the US military, according to several US media outlets such as Axios and Fox News.

The collapse of peace talks

In June, a 60-day truce was agreed, but negotiations failed on August 17. Now, Washington had opted for Operation Economic Pariah, focused on sanctions, maritime control, and selective bans to suffocate the Iranian economy and had not resumed bombings. Until now. This morning's is the first exchange of attacks between the US and Iran since the end of July. At that time, the media reported on American bombings against dozens of military targets of the Revolutionary Guard.

Donald Trump remains trapped in the Iran labyrinth, a war without an exit that was supposed to last, at most, six weeks and which has now been dragging on for six months. Without any effective triumph, the American president has posted on his social network, Truth Social, a video created with artificial intelligence that simulates an attack on the Iranian island of Jarg, the country's main oil base and a recurring target for Trump. The images show in 9 seconds a fictitious bombing that causes a warehouse and an oil tanker to explode, with a message that says: "Jarg Island in pieces!!! President DJT".