US forces ready to resume combat operations against Iran if ordered -

US forces are ready to resume combat operations against Iran if ordered, Washington’s top military officer said Tuesday, as the Pentagon threatened a “devastating” response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Hormuz strait.

The warnings came after Iran’s powerful chief negotiator said Tehran “had not even started yet” in the crucial trade route, after a spate of attacks by both sides on Monday threatened to reignite the Middle East war.
Iran fired missiles and drones at US forces and UAE territory including an energy facility, while Washington said it hit six Iranian boats it said threatened commercial shipping, in the sharpest escalation since a nearly month-long truce.
US Central Command “and the rest of the joint force remain ready to resume major combat operations against Iran if ordered to do so,” General Dan Caine told reporters.

“No adversary should mistake our current restraint with a lack of resolve.”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the US was “not looking for a fight” in the strait but vowed that Iranian attacks would “face overwhelming and devastating American firepower.”

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has become a prominent figure in peace talks, said the status quo was “intolerable for America.”

The trading of fire in the waterway where the rivals are vying for control with dueling maritime blockades took place after US President Donald Trump announced a plan to guide ships out of the Gulf.

The war, which erupted more than two months ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread throughout the Middle East and roiled the global economy, impacting hundreds of millions worldwide despite a weeks-long ceasefire.

Ghalibaf said the actions of the US and its allies had put shipping security at risk, but said their “malign presence will diminish”, with Tehran vowing not to surrender control of the Hormuz strait.
But despite the clashes under Trump’s effort dubbed “Project Freedom”, Denmark’s freight giant Maersk said on Tuesday that one of its ships had successfully sailed through the Hormuz under US escort.

Iran’s military had threatened to attack any US forces that approached or entered the trade route.

– ‘Direct consequences’ –
The UAE called Iranian missile and drone attacks including one on an energy facility in Fujairah “a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression”, while key US ally Saudi Arabia called Tuesday for efforts “to reach a political solution”.

The attacks delivered another shock to the global economy, with stocks sinking on Tuesday after crude prices surged a day earlier as the tensions raised fears over the truce, with no sign of a deal to reopen the strait.