Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian reportedly said his country in "full-scale war" with United States of America. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they had struck U.S. military assets across the Middle East after another night of U.S. bombardment of Iranian cities, part of a cycle of attacks that has all but wrecked an interim ceasefire agreement. Oil prices briefly jumped above $90 a barrel after renewed disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while U.S. President Donald Trump defended the latest strikes as retaliation for American military deaths, despite mounting political pressure at home from rising gasoline prices.
The conflict also escalated with attacks on desalination facilities, raising the prospect of water shortages across parts of the Gulf and opening a new front in a war that is increasingly threatening civilian infrastructure. Yet even as both sides traded strikes, Tehran and Washington separately signalled they had not ruled out a return to negotiations.
