Trump Warns of New Bombing Campaign Against Iran

On Thursday, Iran denied involvement in an attack on a South Korean cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump expressed optimism that a deal to end the war was “very possible,” but cautioned that Washington would resume bombing if negotiations fell through.

Tehran’s embassy in Seoul said it “firmly rejects and categorically denies” allegations that its armed forces were behind a blast aboard the Panama-flagged HMM Namu, which caught fire on Monday while transiting the strategic waterway with 24 crew members on board.

Trump later claimed Iran had “taken some shots” at the vessel and urged South Korea to join US-led efforts to restore shipping through the strait.

The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, saw Iran respond with attacks across the Middle East and impose a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, rattling global energy markets.

Despite Trump’s optimism, Iran has yet to respond to a new US proposal, with its chief negotiator warning that Washington was seeking to force the Islamic republic’s “surrender.”

“We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.

But he had warned earlier that if Iran did not honour what had been agreed, bombing would resume “at a much higher level and intensity.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the US proposal remained “under review” and Tehran would communicate its position to mediator Pakistan “after finalising its views.”

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has led Iran’s negotiations, warned that Washington sought “through a naval blockade, economic pressure and media manipulation, to destroy the country’s cohesion in order to force us to surrender.”

US news outlet Axios, citing two officials, reported both sides were close to agreement on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for nuclear negotiations.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key figure in initial talks in Islamabad, said he was “very hopeful that the current momentum will lead to a lasting agreement that secures durable peace and stability for the region and beyond.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call Wednesday that attacks on UAE civilian infrastructure and ships near the strait were “unjustified,” urging all parties to lift their dual blockade in the waterway “without delay and without conditions.”

Pezeshkian told Macron that any full reopening of the strait required the lifting of the US naval blockade, adding that “excessive demands, threatening statements, and failure to adhere to necessary frameworks by the United States have further complicated the path of diplomacy,” according to the Iranian presidency.

The call came as France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle transited the Suez Canal en route to the southern Red Sea, where it will pre-position for a possible multinational mission to restore navigation in the strait.

The deployment was intended to send “a signal that not only are we ready to secure the Strait of Hormuz but that we are also capable of doing so,” a Macron aide told reporters.

Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are leading the initiative, which more than 40 countries have joined in military planning.