As U.S. President Donald Trump signaled an all-out military squeeze on Iran, the U.S. military carried out large-scale airstrikes targeting Iran again on the 14th. Trump declared he would hit Iran's underground nuclear facilities, which had been off-limits until now, sending fears of a full-scale war in the Middle East back to a peak.
On the 13th (local time), U.S. Central Command said it began striking military facilities inside Iran starting at 4:45 p.m. Eastern time on the 13th. The U.S. military conducted destruction operations targeting Iran's missiles and air defenses, as well as small fast boats belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Central Command added that the operation began to degrade the Iranian military's ability to attack merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz. That day, Trump also appeared on a radio program and warned that the United States would "hit [Iran] very hard" on the 13th and 14th, adding, "There is nothing they can do."
Just before launching full-scale airstrikes on Iran on the 13th, Trump identified "Pickaxe Mountain," a hardened underground nuclear facility that had never been targeted since war broke out between the two countries in February, as a strike point. U.S. intelligence authorities view the site as a key covert base where Iran's major nuclear activities and uranium enrichment take place. Bloomberg, citing senior officials in the Trump administration, reported that the strikes are a powerful pressure tactic both to punish Iran for attacking ships and to force the regime back to the negotiating table. They assessed that Trump does not want to return to a full-scale war.
On the 10th, the White House officially notified U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and others in a letter that hostilities with Iran had resumed on the 7th. This means the 60-day war-powers clock that allows the U.S. president to use military force at discretion without congressional approval has started counting down again. In the letter, Trump said he acted "under the constitutional authority to conduct the foreign relations of the United States, as commander in chief and head of the executive branch."
Friction over the Strait of Hormuz, the fuse for the armed clash, is also intensifying. Last week, Trump declared that "the truce is over," citing Iran's repeated threats against merchant ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. On the 13th, he added that "the United States will serve as the guardian of the strait," reinstating a permanent blockade on Iran and announcing, "We will collect a 20% cargo toll from merchant ships worldwide." Senior officials including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have long argued that Iran's claim to collect tolls in international waters is a "violation of international law." Trump's remark about collecting a 20% toll runs completely counter to the positions of those senior U.S. officials.