US launches second day of strikes as Iran responds with attacks on Gulf neighbors

Fox News host Jesse Watters detailed the latest U.S. strikes against Iran on "Jesse Watters Primetime," highlighting the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

President Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday that the U.S. has snuck hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil through the Strait of Hormuz without Iran's knowledge.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces have disabled more than a dozen vessels seeking to flout the U.S. blockade.

U.S. Central Command says its forces disabled a third oil tanker attempting to violate the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz late Wednesday night.

CENTCOM wrote in an update on X that the vessel was attempting to transport Iranian oil. It is the third vessel U.S. forces have disabled this week.

"U.S. Central Command acted against Guinea-Bissau flagged M/T Jalveer as it attempted to transport oil from Iran through the Gulf of Oman. A U.S. aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from U.S. forces," CENTCOM wrote in a statement.

In total, CENTCOM says its forces have disabled nine non-compliant vessels, redirected 135 ships that complied, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass since initiating the blockade on April 13.

This is an excerpt from an opinion article by counterterrorism analyst Erfan Fard.

For nearly half a century, American policymakers have debated how to negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The real question is whether Washington is still misdiagnosing the problem. Iran is not simply a diplomatic adversary but a regime whose strategy is built on terrorism, proxy warfare and hostility toward the United States.

Why does Washington continue to treat the regime as a negotiating partner when decades of evidence suggest it is a national security threat? The answer lies in a misunderstanding of its nature. Successive administrations have often analyzed Tehran as a conventional state pursuing national interests. It is not. The regime was born as an ideological project built on hostility toward America, Israel and the Western order.

The conflict did not begin with the nuclear issue, sanctions or regional expansion. It began in 1979, when Iran was transformed from a key American ally into a revolutionary headquarters. The seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was more than a diplomatic crisis; it signaled that the new regime would derive legitimacy through permanent confrontation.

Washington's misperception of the regime dates back to the revolution itself. Many American policymakers viewed the upheaval through the lens of anti-monarchical politics rather than Khomeinist ideology. The result was the greatest strategic loss of the Cold War: America lost a key ally and gained a radical state aligned with anti-Western forces across the Middle East.

The rebellious coalition surrounding Iran’s then-leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini extended beyond traditional clerics and included Islamic terrorist actors aligned with broader anti-Western movements. What emerged was not merely a new government but a transnational ideological project. Washington underestimated that transformation then and has often underestimated it since.

Khomeinism became the ideological engine of the regime, combining religious absolutism, anti-Westernism and political violence. This is why Washington has repeatedly misunderstood Tehran. The Islamic Republic is not merely a regime with whom America has policy disagreements. It views survival and confrontation as inseparable, while anti-Americanism, hostility toward Israel and the export of revolution remain central to its identity.

President Donald Trump says he wants to sign an a peace agreement with Iran in Switzerland if he is successful in securing a deal.

Trump revealed the detail in an interview with Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Thursday, even as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran are at their hottest point in weeks.

Vice President JD Vance says negotiations are taking place with both Iran's political leadership and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Analysts say the IRGC has proven to be the more radical of the two and has repeatedly stalled talks.

The U.S. has carried out strikes against Iran for two straight days this week in response to the shoot-down of an Apache helicopter by Iran.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday revealed that top Iranian officials had called him directly to request a halt to U.S. bombing attacks, according to Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.

The exchange, which marks a rare and critical moment of direct engagement between Trump and Tehran leadership, came as the president said Washington had delivered “vicious” and “violent” strikes earlier in the day.

The president also told Fox News the U.S. operation involved the deployment of 49 Tomahawk missiles alongside fighter jets targeting radar and air defense systems. The strikes reportedly hammered positions about 40 miles outside Tehran and along Iran’s southwestern coast on the Persian Gulf.

Trump warned that the United States is prepared to rapidly escalate military action if Tehran does not soon sign an agreement to end the ongoing crisis.

“We'll bomb the S— out of them tomorrow,” Trump warned, going on to admit that the ceasefire with Iran is "the most violated ceasefire in the history of the world."

Vice President JD Vance told Yingst that negotiations were taking place with a variety of figures within Iran's regime.

"We're certainly dealing with both the very highest levels of the political leadership, but also the IRGC," Vance said.

Fox News' Trey Yingst contributed to this report.