The United States and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire, but Iran said the situation returned to normal while the US said it did not want to escalate.

US President Donald Trump told ABC, meanwhile, that the truce was still “in effect.” But in a social media post, he threatened Iran with further strikes if it did not agree to a deal with the US.

Later, he told reporters that the United States was still negotiating with Iran.

The American military’s Central Command confirmed overnight that it carried out “self-defense” strikes in Iran in response to “unprovoked Iranian attacks” against US Navy missile destroyers that transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman. Iran has been blocking the strait, a key pathway for the global oil supply, since the beginning of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic in late February.

Iran’s top joint military command, meanwhile, accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting an Iranian oil tanker and another ship, and of carrying out air attacks on civilian areas on Qeshm Island in the strait and on nearby coastal areas of Bandar Khamir Sirik on the mainland.

Iran’s military said it responded by attacking US military vessels east of the Strait of Hormuz and south of the port of Chabahar. A spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the strikes inflicted “significant damage.”

The US military, however, said it intercepted the “inbound threats,” and “no US assets were struck.”

Speaking to ABC, Trump sought to downplay the exchange. “It’s just a love tap,” Trump told the reporter, according to her social media........

© The Times of Israel