Trump-Iran latest: Tehran says ‘aggression’ will be met with ‘decisive’ response as Trump threatens fresh strikes

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed the US administration’s frustration anew, stating that Tehran last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the US on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers.”

“President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behavior to occur,” Ms Leavitt said in a statement on Friday evening.

“Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way.”

The US president hailed the agreement as a “major milestone” in the peace process, saying the deal included the total disarmament ‌of Hamas and other groups in Gaza as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.

Published in full on Friday, the roadmap says that Hamas and ‘other factions’ agree that “all civilian governance and security functions in Gaza shall be handed over” to a new technocratic body set up to run the enclave.

With that, the technocratic body will take over responsibility for handling “internal security incidents.”

Senior reporter James Reynolds reports:

We’ve just heard from Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who has warned the US against carrying out fresh any fresh strikes.

Any such aggression from the US or Israel will be met with a “decisive and proportional response”, Araghchi warned.

It is the latest in a series of threats and counter-threats which are beginning to become a hallmark of this war, ever since an initial ceasefire was agreed in mid-April.

In a separate phone calls with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, and Pakistan’s army commander Field Marshal Asim Munir, Araghchi also declared that any “adventurous action” by the US would be responded to.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman, ⁠including one in which a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile.

In the first incident, a tanker was struck by an ⁠unknown projectile about 11 ​nautical ⁠miles northeast of Oman’s Lima, damaging its engine room and leaving the ⁠vessel not under command, UKMTO said. There ​were ⁠no reported casualties ‌nor environmental impact, it added.

Later, UKMTO said it had received a second report of ‌an incident, 21 nautical miles ‌northeast of Oman’s Khasab. The master of a tanker reported seeing a large splash and ⁠an explosion in close proximity to the vessel, though no damage was reported.

Lima and Khasab are on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping chokepoint through which about a ‌fifth of global oil consumption passes.

Shipping ​through the Strait of Hormuz ‌has faced heightened risks ⁠in recent weeks, with vessels reporting ⁠security incidents and some shipowners adopting additional precautions as ‌Iran and the ​United States stepped ‌up hostilities.

Israel has not commented publicly on the road map towards peace that Trump has proposed but Israeli officials, speaking anonymously over the past two days, have signalled that the document does not align with the country’s interests.

The officials also reiterated that Israel would not withdraw from the Yellow Line in Gaza, which divides Israeli-controlled territory in the east with the western part of the enclave.

In recent months, the military has built a massive earthen barrier roughly along the same line, developing what it described as a “security zone” adjacent to the berm, equipped with intelligence and technological assets.

Israel has also carried out controlled demolitions and clearing operations across much of the territory it controls. Palestinians who lived there have yet to return — and are unsure whether their homes are still standing.

President Donald Trump‘s attempt to describe the prowess of American air defense weapons left him making childish video game-like sounds as he recounted how U.S. anti-aircraft interceptors successfully downed a quintet of Iranian ballistic missiles over the weekend.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Friday, the president was answering a question on whether he’d permit Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors under a license when he digressed into the onomatopoetic tangent.

“The other day you read that five missiles were shot. They were going 8,600 miles per hour … and they were big missiles, and they were shot at Jordan, and our guys were there — bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Five missiles, and we shot all before they got close,” he said.

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For Palestinians in Gaza, President Donald Trump’s announcement that Hamas had agreed to disarm was a small sign of hope that Israel’s attacks might end, allowing them to rebuild their lives and what remains of their homes.

But it also clashed with the reality on the ground, where Israeli strikes have continued since Trump first touted the deal late Thursday in Washington, and where few steps have been taken to advance a broader ceasefire agreement that went into effect in October.

Most of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians are still displaced or live in tent camps, where poor conditions and overcrowding have led to rodent infestations and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as chickenpox.

“They can talk about withdrawal and disarmament,” said Abdel Moneim Aboul-Roos, 24, a tuk-tuk driver who lost his leg in an Israeli airstrike.

“I don’t care about any of it as long as there is no food or medicine.”

Donald Trump on Thursday ​said there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, which both Israel and Hamas agreed to last ‌year and which started with the ceasefire.

Trump said that Hamas, ⁠which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades before carrying out the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, ⁠had agreed to lay down its weapons.

However, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is yet to comment publicly, while his national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called the agreement unacceptable and said ‌that Israel must continue to carry out its ​policy of assassinating Hamas leaders.

Trump’s Board of Peace, established to implement ‌his plan for ending the Gaza war, released a roadmap on ​Thursday outlining the final steps for carrying out the initiative. The document states that Israel will cease military operations as part of its commitment to Trump’s 20-point plan, which it signed last year.

President Donald Trump on Friday renewed an on-again, off-again feud with one of his 2024 election opponents by suggesting that an Iranian cyberattack against Minnesota’s water infrastructure was due to the state government’s incompetence rather than Tehran’s malfeasance.

Trump was speaking during a cabinet meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland when, unprompted, he downplayed an advisory from both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Environmental Protection Agency, which had warned that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and sewage systems and other critical infrastructure sectors across the United States.

“Today, I just want to mention that we heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack, and they blame it on Iran. I don’t think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent. There was a cyberattack of 30 water plants, and I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota,” Trump said.

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