US President Donald Trump speaks throughout a gathering with Prime Minister of Iraq Ali al-Zaidi within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, on July 14, 2026.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Photographs
President Donald Trump on Wednesday mentioned Iran needs to fulfill and make a deal, because the U.S. navy introduced that it launched assaults in opposition to Iranian targets for the second time in 12 hours.
However Iran has publicly maintained its combat-ready posture, and protection analysts informed CNBC they see no clear path to a settlement of the renewed hostilities between Washington and Tehran.
“We acquired a name simply as I used to be coming right here that they need to meet,” Trump mentioned in a Fox Enterprise interview earlier than collaborating in a roundtable occasion in Pennsylvania on protection and innovation.
“They all the time need to meet,” he mentioned of the Islamic republic, insisting that its navy capabilities have been largely depleted — a declare that he has made in related phrases for months.
“They’re nasty individuals, however they need to make a deal,” Trump mentioned.
Across the similar time, U.S. Central Command mentioned in an X publish that at 3 p.m. ET, its forces “launched operations for a second wave of strikes at this time in opposition to Iran.”
“The strikes are focusing on Iranian navy capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting by way of the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM mentioned.
The U.S. had already attacked Iran round 6 a.m. ET, hours after Trump warned that navy strikes would intensify subsequent week if Tehran doesn’t cooperate in peace talks.
These assaults ended at 7:30 a.m. ET, CENTCOM mentioned, including that precision munitions had been launched in opposition to Iran’s coastal protection programs, and cruise missile storage and launch websites on Higher Tunb Island.
The Tunb Islands are small islands positioned within the Persian Gulf, close to the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s stance
Latest statements from Iranian officers painting Tehran as being ready to maintain preventing, however nonetheless open to the opportunity of diplomacy.
“We now have by no means welcomed warfare, and we won’t, however we should all the time be ready for battle,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mentioned in a translated assertion reported in Iranian state media.
“Along with this, we should additionally use the instruments of diplomacy and negotiation to attain and solidify our nationwide pursuits,” mentioned Ghalibaf.
Conflict escalates
CENTCOM had carried out prior rounds of strikes in opposition to Iran in current days. Tehran, in the meantime, has launched assaults on a number of Gulf nations.
In an interview with Fox Information on Tuesday night, Trump hinted that the battle was extra more likely to intensify than de-escalate as a fragile ceasefire agreed final month continues to fracture.
“We’ll hit them very onerous tonight,” he mentioned. “We’ll hit them onerous tomorrow night time. We’ll hit them actually onerous the night time after.”
He added that U.S. forces would go on to focus on key Iranian infrastructure subsequent week with out a diplomatic breakthrough.
“Subsequent week it will get actually dangerous for them as a result of subsequent week comes the facility vegetation,” he mentioned. “Subsequent week comes the bridges. We’ll knock out all their energy vegetation. We’ll knock out all their bridges except they get to the desk and negotiate.”
Trump threatened to impose a 20% levy on cargo shipped by way of the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week, earlier than abandoning that demand on Tuesday. The president mentioned the Gulf states would put money into the U.S. as compensation as an alternative.
The escalation in preventing comes after the U.S. launched strikes on dozens of Iranian targets final week, in retaliation for business ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz coming underneath assault.
Trump subsequently mentioned the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was “over.”
Oil costs edged greater on Wednesday morning, as issues about protected transit by way of the Strait of Hormuz – a essential oil transport route within the Center East – lingered. Entrance-month international benchmark Brent crude futures held above the $85 per barrel mark.
Talking to CNBC’s “Squawk Field Europe” on Wednesday, Jakob Larsen, chief security and safety officer at worldwide transport physique BIMCO, mentioned the present state of affairs is “not straightforward” for the trade to navigate.
“All these messages going forwards and backwards and altering path fully simply provides to the confusion and the complexity of the entire state of affairs,” he mentioned. “In the event you take a step away and take a look at it from above, then the general setting we’re is elevated uncertainty, elevated dangers, and with that comes greater costs.”
Danger of ‘eternally warfare’
Mike Rosenberg, a administration professor at IESE Enterprise Faculty, informed CNBC over e mail on Wednesday morning that “it appears we aren’t any nearer to a settlement” to finish the battle.
“The present return to warfare makes it clear that the phrases of the Islamabad Memorandum, signed by Trump on 14 June, had been unrealistic on the time,” he mentioned. “So long as either side search an settlement that enables them to assert victory, I can not see a constructive final result any time quickly.”
Rosenberg mentioned that one of the best the U.S. can hope for now’s “a brand new model of the joint plan of motion that Obama and his crew developed years in the past,” which he added will likely be troublesome for Trump to simply accept.
“The Trump administration underestimated Iranian resolve and has no straightforward means out,” he mentioned. “The probably final result is a few type of everlasting ceasefire negotiated by Pakistan with none nuclear ensures, and it’s seemingly that the administration will keep away from making that settlement earlier than the mid-term elections.”
Andreas Böhm, a lecturer in worldwide affairs at Switzerland’s College of St. Gallen, mentioned the battle was “difficult” to resolve and risked changing into a drawn-out, yearslong warfare.
“Trump is caught in a multitude of his personal (and Israel’s) making and might’t discover a face-saving means out of it, whereas the Iranians assume they’re nonetheless in battle and are due to this fact attempting to maximise their good points and threat overplaying their hand,” he mentioned in an e mail. “This would possibly end in a long-time low-level battle and due to this fact one of many forever-wars Trump pledged to finish. Either side will attempt to elevate the prices for the respective different till it’ll turn out to be prohibitive.”
Böhm, a specialist in Center East affairs, informed CNBC that Trump had “began the warfare with out a aim,” making it troublesome to foretell what would possibly come subsequent.
“With out a technique, it’s not clear what he goals to attain,” he mentioned. “[Trump] cannot open the Strait of Hormuz by pressure apart from an operation of a scale that he will likely be unable promote to the American public. If he begins a broader warfare on infrastructure in Iran, the retribution will hit vitality infrastructure within the Gulf.”
The one means out of the battle now was by way of diplomacy, mentioned Böhm, however he added that this could now be “rather more troublesome.”
“There is perhaps some slim runway the place negotiations relating to Hormuz would possibly land, however broader preparations should come to phrases with the truth that there may be now a special actuality,” he mentioned. “We won’t return to earlier than to this warfare.”
