Trump vows retaliation as Iran strikes US bases in Jordan and UAE, escalating six month war

President Donald Trump said Monday the United States will retaliate against Iran following missile and drone attacks on American forces stationed in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, marking a sharp escalation in a conflict that has simmered for six months.

Trump told a television interviewer that the US would hit back hard and that a response was coming. He said American air defense systems intercepted most of the incoming fire, adding that one missile deemed unlikely to hit anything significant was allowed to pass through unchallenged.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said early Monday it had struck the King Hussein and Azraq airbases in Jordan using ballistic missiles, while also targeting Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE with explosive drones. The Guards described the operation as retaliation for a US strike on Larak Island on Sunday, which American officials said was aimed at preventing Iranian forces from placing sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical corridor for global oil shipments.

Trump also voiced skepticism about any near term diplomatic breakthrough, noting that while Tehran has sought a meeting, current US sanctions are taking hold forcefully.

Separately, Trump called for Iran’s leadership to face trial for crimes against humanity, alleging in a social media post that the government had killed more than 100,000 protesters. He wrote that Iranian officials must be tried for war crimes against humanity, describing Iran as officially a failed nation with a leadership in total disarray, claiming the country has no navy, no air force and no functioning currency. He said Iran’s only remaining assets were what he called fake news originating in the United States and a willingness to kill its own protesters. There has been no independent confirmation of the 100,000 death toll Trump cited.

The UAE condemned the Iranian drone attack as a dangerous escalation and a clear violation of its sovereignty, with its foreign ministry saying the country reserves the right to respond. Officials said the UAE’s air defenses intercepted the drone over the country’s territorial waters. Iranian state television reported that its army targeted Al Minhad Air Base in direct response to the US strike on Larak Island, with Iran’s army stating it had used dozens of explosive drones since early Monday to hit locations housing US military helicopters and personnel at the base. Iranian forces described Al Minhad as a key logistics and air transport hub for foreign forces and vowed further retaliation against American troops, saying the attack avenged the deaths of Revolutionary Guard members and civilians killed in Sunday’s strike on Larak Island.

Jordan’s army said it intercepted eight missiles that breached its airspace early Monday, adding that the missiles were destroyed before they could threaten civilians or property. The Revolutionary Guards said separately that its strikes on the King Hussein and Azraq bases involved both missiles and drones targeting infrastructure and areas where fighter jets were stationed, claiming to have caused heavy damage.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of manipulating Washington into war, calling him a serpent in a social media post. Araghchi said Netanyahu had openly boasted in Hebrew about tricking the US administration into fighting Iran on Israel’s behalf, claiming Netanyahu joked about influencing America through extensive airtime on US networks while praising Trump’s leadership in English.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, in his first comments since the US strike on Larak Island, said Tehran is not seeking war but will never remain passive in the face of aggression. Speaking before departing for an international summit in Kyrgyzstan, Pezeshkian said Iran would deliver a decisive response to any aggressors, according to Iran’s Fars news agency, and warned that instability in the region serves no country’s interests. He later arrived in Bishkek to attend a summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states.

Hamid Bovard, chief executive of Iran’s National Iranian Oil Company, dismissed Trump’s earlier claim that Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export hub, had been destroyed, calling the president’s social media posts laughable and saying conditions on the island remained calm. Bovard said oil operations had continued without pause despite repeated past strikes by US and Israeli forces, and that contractors are currently rebuilding and modernizing storage tanks and jetties at the site, which normally handles 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said Monday that its forces shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Strait of Hormuz, causing it to crash into Gulf waters. A statement from the Guards’ public relations office credited what it called ever watchful fighters operating modern air defense systems with the strike, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency, and praised ordinary Iranians for their continued show of support for the country’s armed forces.

The renewed hostilities began Sunday when Trump posted a one line message on social media claiming Kharg Island was being blown to smithereens, accompanied by a video clip showing dramatic explosions. A news agency confirmed using AI detection software that the video was most likely synthetically generated, and no independent evidence emerged to support any actual attack on the island. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment outside business hours, and Iranian media did not immediately react to the post.

The exchange of strikes followed weeks in which the Trump administration had shifted its approach toward economic pressure, targeting Tehran and its business partners with costly sanctions rather than military action. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that new secondary sanctions are likely to be announced on a weekly basis, with initial measures focused on banks. Bessent said officials are telling banks it is not acceptable to hold Iranian funds or assist the government, and that after penalizing the UAE branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr on Friday over alleged financial ties to Iran, the next step could involve cutting an institution off entirely from the dollar based financial system. He said additional measures would follow on a near weekly basis ahead of an upcoming meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders.

A US official said the strikes on Larak Island, a small island in the Strait of Hormuz near the strategic port of Bandar Abbas, marked the first American military action since late July. The official said Revolutionary Guard forces had been observed preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the strait before the US strike occurred. In response, Iran launched ballistic missiles at the two bases in Jordan, and Jordanian state television reported that the country’s armed forces intercepted eight of the incoming missiles. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Larak Island strike killed and wounded several soldiers and civilians and vowed a further response and punishment. US Central Command said in a statement that its forces had taken limited, precise action against Iranian minelaying operations that posed an imminent threat in the strait, though it offered no additional details.

Shipping data showed that the number of visible commodity vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz fell to just five per day over the weekend, though the actual figure could be higher since some vessels have disabled their automatic identification systems to avoid being targeted. Trump said last week that all mines had been detonated or cleared from international waters in the strait and warned that any vessel found placing new mines would be destroyed, a claim Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy dismissed as an obvious lie, insisting the strait remains closed to vessels lacking Iranian permission. Before the blockade began six months ago, the waterway carried nearly a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, and Iran remains the third largest oil producer within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

In a separate interview published Sunday, Trump reiterated that Iran must never be permitted to obtain nuclear weapons, describing the country’s leadership as very violent and evil people. He argued that Tehran would have used a nuclear weapon had it developed one, claiming the Middle East would have essentially ceased to exist and that Israel would have been destroyed, with the United States or Europe potentially becoming subsequent targets. He said that without his presidency, Israel would no longer exist and the broader Middle East would likely be gone as well.

Trump also praised the effectiveness of the ongoing pressure campaign against Iran, saying the country is being hit harder than any nation in memory and describing the naval blockade as unbelievable in its impact. He called Iran a failing nation and said he was surprised when Tehran began striking Gulf countries at the start of the conflict, arguing that those attacks cost Iran regional support. He additionally accused Democrats of wanting the United States to lose its conflicts with both Iran and Venezuela, insisting that outcome would not happen because the country is winning easily.

Earlier Sunday, US forces struck the two Iranian launchers on Larak Island in what officials described as the first American strikes on Iranian territory since late July, targeting systems allegedly being prepared to launch sea mine equipped rockets into the strait. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said preliminary information suggested drones carried out the strike. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have remained elevated since the war began with initial strikes on Iran in late February. Although a framework agreement was signed in June through mediation by Pakistan and Qatar, the United States launched a two week bombing campaign in July and reimposed its naval blockade after disputes emerged over navigation rights within the strait.