US forces are ready to resume combat operations against Iran if ordered, Washington’s top military officer said Tuesday, as the Pentagon threatened a “devastating” response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Hormuz strait.
The warnings came after Iran’s powerful chief negotiator said Tehran “had not even started yet” in the crucial trade route, after a spate of attacks by both sides on Monday threatened to reignite the Middle East war.
Iran fired missiles and drones at US forces and UAE territory including an energy facility, while Washington said it hit six Iranian boats it said threatened commercial shipping, in the sharpest escalation since a nearly month-long truce.
US Central Command “and the rest of the joint force remain ready to resume major combat operations against Iran if ordered to do so,” General Dan Caine told reporters.
“No adversary should mistake our current restraint with a lack of resolve.”
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the US was “not looking for a fight” in the strait but vowed that Iranian attacks would “face overwhelming and devastating American firepower.”
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has become a prominent figure in peace talks, said the status quo was “intolerable for America.”
The trading of fire in the waterway where the rivals are vying for control with dueling maritime blockades took place after US President Donald Trump announced a plan to guide ships out of the Gulf.
The war, which erupted more than two months ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread throughout the Middle East and roiled the global economy, impacting hundreds of millions worldwide despite a weeks-long ceasefire.
Ghalibaf said the actions of the US and its allies had put shipping security at risk, but said their “malign presence will diminish”, with Tehran vowing not to surrender control of the Hormuz strait.
Iran denied any of its combat ships had been hit in US attacks but accused Washington of killing five civilian passengers on boats.
