Iran-US war latest: Tehran threatens to ‘punish the aggressor’ after Trump launches heavy wave of strikes

President Donald Trump is “exasperated” by the lack of progress in ending the Iran conflict and the lack of consensus on strategy among his top military advisers, according to a report.

An unnamed ally of the president has told NBC News: “The president is exasperated. I don’t think he believed it was going to be this difficult to get the Iranians to agree to a deal.

“There was not a real strategy for how long or what they should do to get to the endpoint… He did not intend this to be a long, drawn-out war.”

An Iranian attack hit a building belonging to a Chinese company in northern Kuwait on Thursday, killing a worker and inflicting significant damage, the Kuwaiti defence ministry spokesperson said on Thursday in a post on X.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have said on Thursday that two tankers had attempted to use what it called an unsafe route in the Strait of Hormuz but turned back after a fire broke out on one of the vessels, according to a statement shared by state media.

It did not identify the cause of the fire.

Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product fell 4.8% in the second quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, preliminary government estimates showed on Thursday, as war in the Middle East impacts the world’s top oil exporter.

The contraction was largely the result of a 24.7% drop in oil activity, showed data from the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). Non-oil and government activity ticked up 0.9% and 0.6% respectively.

The US attacked Iran on Wednesday, intensifying a five-month-old war that has disrupted shipping and energy markets and affected countries in the region beyond the main fronts.

Most Gulf economies will contract more sharply this year than expected three months ago before rebounding in 2027, a Reuters poll found this month.

GASTAT said oil activity in the quarter contributed negatively to real GDP growth by 5.4 percentage points, while non-oil activity contributed positively by 0.4 percentage point.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have vowed to retaliate today after a wave of US strikes on Iranian targets overnight.

In a statement published to state media, the IRGC said it would “punish the aggressor today”.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has hit “crisis-era lows”, a UK-based maritime data firm has reported as a brief pause in fighting was shattered by fresh clashes in the Middle East.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence said amid the worsening security situation “a near-term recovery in traffic” through the strategic waterway was unlikely.

The disruption to trade through the Gulf channel, which is a vital oil and gas supply route, has driven up fuel and food prices.

American defence secretary Pete Hegseth has met with Israeli prime minister Benajamin Netanyahu during a record seventh state visit to the US on Thursday.

“Earlier today I had the pleasure to meet with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,” wrote Hegseth in a post on X.

“Members of my team, including under secretary of war Elbridge Colby and chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, joined me to reaffirm the strength of our defence partnership and commitment to advancing our shared security interests.”

Iran claimed one sailor was killed and another injured in the Ukrainian attack, as the ministry summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to protest against what it described as a “hostile and criminal” act.

Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday the reported strike on a commercial vessel “cannot go unanswered” in a call with the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain reports: