After two days of tit-for-tat strikes with Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (June 11, 2026) said he would pause further attacks, claiming that Tehran has “approved” talks, just hours after threatening to hit the country “very hard” and seize its Kharg Island and other energy infrastructure.
“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday night.
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“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others,” he said adding that the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports “will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump had written in another post that he would continue striking Iran after both sides exchanged fire for two consecutive nights. After Thursday’s attack, Iran also announced that it closed the Strait of Hormuz to all traffc.
In recent months, Mr. Trump had made several U-turns after making harsh threats against Iran and issuing ultimatums, often claiming progress in talks.
After Mr. Trump threatened to take Kharg Island, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s Parliament speaker, had warned that any further escalation would lead to an explosion of energy infrastructure and markets. “Wrong strategies and impulsive decisions will reset the entire board for the worse, explode energy infrastructure and markets and create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years. You will see a different Iran,” he wrote in a social media post.
Mr. Trump’s threats, Iran’s counter-threats, his abrupt U-turn and claims of progress in talks all came within hours, following another round of U.S. air strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation against U.S. bases in the region.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces launched strikes on Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defence sites across Iran in the early hours of Thursday (local time). “U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy assets fired precision munitions on Iranian targets that posed a threat to U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM said in a statement, adding that the attacks were “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression”.
Iranian state media confirmed that Hormozgan and other southern regions were attacked by the U.S. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched two waves of strikes targeting American military bases in three countries in the region, the Guards said in a statement. “Eighteen key targets belonging to the criminal U.S. military were struck and destroyed at the Ali al-Salem and Ahmad al-Jaber airbases in Kuwait, as well as the Sheikh Isa airbase in Bahrain,” the IRGC said.
It added that 12 ballistic missiles were launched at the U.S.-operated al-Azraq air base in Jordan. The IRGC Aerospace Force “hit American F-35, F-15, and F-16 fighter jets and important facilities of the U.S. army located at the airbase and a command-and-control centre,” the Guards said.
The Iranian military’s public relations office claimed that radar systems and communication antennas associated with a Patriot air defence system at the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain were targeted by “explosive-laden drones”.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the senior-most operational command of the armed forces, said Tehran would continue to respond to “the acts of aggression and mischief of the United States”.
It also ordered closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “From this moment, due to insecurity in the region, the Strait of Hormuz is declared closed to the passage of all vessels, including oil tankers and commercial ships, and any traffic will be targeted,” the command announced.
The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), the body Iran created after the war broke out to manage the waterway, said “applicants who have received a pass [to cross the strait] are requested to be patient and wait for the upcoming PGSA guidance.”
U.S. CENTCOM, however, said the Iranian claim was false. “Commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz tonight,” it said in the early morning of Thursday. But Iran’s Tasnim news agency claimed that traffic through the strait has come “to a complete standstill”.
The U.S. said Iran is playing a “zero-sum game”, which it would lose. “Any damage it inflicts on our allies in the Gulf will be paid for with funds extracted from Iranian Accounts. Any tolls paid to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority will be offset by funds extracted from their accounts,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post. “Every attack Iran launches will only deepen the economic and financial consequences it faces.”
Published – June 11, 2026 07:34 pm IST
