US Threatens Iran Response After Jordan Military Base Attack

President Donald Trump said the US would hit Iran hard after a recent attack that targeted a military base in Jordan, as the war in the Middle East flared up once again following a recent pause in hostilities.

"We'll be hitting them hard," Trump said in a phone interview, Fox News reported Wednesday, adding that "they're going to get a beating."

The comments sent oil surging to session highs. A days-long halt to strikes ended Tuesday night after US forces said they were targeted by Iran, while Tehran's state-run IRIB News said Wednesday the US struck a location in Iran's West Azerbaijan province.

The US and Saudi Arabia also struck militants backed by Tehran in Iraq, after Riyadh said it intercepted drones launched by Iraqi groups that were targeting its oil facilities. Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella organization for Shia militias in the country, said the US-Saudi strikes killed 20 people.

Iranian media said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted a base in Jordan in response to "aggressive US actions," without giving details.

The US and Iran had paused tit-for-tat strikes at the end of last week to allow time for a diplomatic conclusion to the five-month war, leading to a significant drop in energy prices. That hiatus now looks over, and Brent crude oil surged about 7% on Wednesday to over $90 a barrel.

Futures have been whipsawed this month as the US and Iran went from escalation to diplomacy and now back to trading fire.

"We're going to let them keep talking," Trump said about the possibility of future talks with Iran.

The latest clashes underscore how far Iran and the US are from formally restarting peace negotiations, let alone agreeing a deal to permanently end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That's causing plenty of frustration for Trump. With US gasoline prices having soared and Americans increasingly against the war, his standing is taking a hit ahead of midterm elections in November.

The series of strikes came hours after Trump said he'd prefer to avoid escalating the conflict and sounded optimistic about the chances of a diplomatic breakthrough.

The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut, with hardly any ships traveling through — at least with their transponders on. Early Wednesday, Iran's state-run IRIB News said the IRGC claimed to have "struck and brought to a halt" three tankers in recent hours. They were, according to the report, "moving along an unsafe and illegal route."

Talks between Iran and Oman to get more traffic through the waterway, a vital conduit for flows of energy and other commodities such as aluminum and helium, seem to have faltered. Iranian negotiators rejected an Omani proposal that they open a channel equally controlled by each country, according to Iran's media. Instead, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Tehran wants to have sole control over vessels coming into the Persian Gulf.

Oman had hoped to be able to make a statement in the coming days signaling progress, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Omani officials believe a shipping agreement with Iran would enable Washington and Tehran to get back to the negotiating table.

The decision by Iraqi militias to join the fray adds to the risk of a new front opening and the war escalating. Saudi Arabia isn't known to have attacked Iraqi territory in years.

Iran has funded and trained Shia militant groups in Iraq, its western neighbor, since around 2003, when the US's invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein and led to chaos in the Arab country.

Washington is trying to dilute Iran's influence over such groups. This month, at the White House, Trump hosted Iraq's new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who's promised to try to disarm the militias. They remain powerful — politically as well as militarily — and many of them have members who are elected lawmakers.

Iran denied having any role in the Iraqi groups' strikes on Saudi Arabia. "Attributing every action against US interests in the region to the Islamic Republic of Iran is a major miscalculation," IRIB reported an unnamed source as saying.

The Iraqi militias' actions follow attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities and ships in the Red Sea by the Houthis, an Iran-backed group based in Yemen. The Islamist organization announced a blockade of Saudi ports and struck some ships last week.

The kingdom's forces then attacked Houthi military sites, with the group retaliating by firing drones and missiles at the Saudi port cities of Yanbu and Jizan on Saturday.

The Houthi operations opened a new front in the war and may effectively close the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the southern tip of the Red Sea, another important chokepoint for the global oil market.

While some ships are still going through Bab el-Mandeb, several have turned away.