Ceasefire for Less Than 20 Days: The U.S. Launches New Airstrikes on Iran Again, Revokes Oil Waivers, and Expands the Attack Scale Fivefold

On Tuesday local time, with the ceasefire lasting for less than 20 days, tensions between the U.S. and Iran once again escalated. The United States took a series of tough measures against Iran—first launching a new round of airstrikes, and then revoking an order that allowed Iran to sell oil to the world.

A series of actions directly triggered a chain reaction in international markets. International oil prices surged by 5% overnight, while spot gold fell under pressure due to concerns about interest rate hikes. The move also further jeopardized the peace agreements between the two sides.

The U.S. Central Command said in a post on X that this “powerful strike” against Iran was intended as a heavy-handed response to attacks and harassment targeting cargo ships carrying innocent civilian crews in international waters.

The post further emphasized that Iran’s such aggressive actions have no justification at all; not only are they dangerous, they also clearly violate the bilateral peace ceasefire agreement.

Also, according to a July 7 local-time report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the United States revoked a general license authorizing Iranian oil sales. Related wind-down transactions will be allowed to continue until 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time on July 17.

Meanwhile, an anonymous U.S. official said that preliminary indications show that “Iran has recently fired on three merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.” The official called the behavior “entirely unacceptable” and said it will lead to even more serious corresponding consequences.

The official also said that the U.S. strikes launched against Iran this time—both in terms of operation scale and strike intensity—are four to five times larger than the round of strikes carried out 10 days ago. And this notable escalation in military action further exacerbated U.S.-Iran tensions.

#The U.S. Launches New Airstrikes on Iran