U.S. airstrikes in Iran threaten a fragile ceasefire as President Trump warns of total destruction amid renewed commercial shipping attacks.
WASHINGTON — A fragile, days-old ceasefire between Washington and Tehran teetered on the brink of total collapse after U.S. combat aircraft executed sweeping retaliatory airstrikes across southern Iran, prompting President Donald Trump to issue an existential warning to the Iranian leadership over renewed assaults against commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf.
Publishing on Truth Social, Trump warned that ongoing maritime disruptions would trigger catastrophic American force, declaring that the Pentagon was positioned to “complete the job” if Tehran did not immediately halt drone and missile operations targeting international commercial vessels.
“If that becomes necessary,” Trump wrote, the Islamic Republic of Iran “could cease to exist.”