TEHRAN, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned U.S. "aggressive" attacks earlier in the day against monitoring and surveillance centers in Iran's southern coastal regions, calling them a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and a recently signed peace memorandum of understanding (MoU).
Recurring U.S. attacks, along with a Tuesday decision by the U.S. Treasury to revoke a license for Iranian oil sales until Aug. 21, disruption of Iranian arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz, and Israeli "military aggression" against Lebanon, have rendered "important and fundamental" parts of the MoU ineffective, it said in a statement.
It warned that Iran's armed forces will not hesitate to target the source and origin of U.S. "military aggression."
The statement came as the United States and Iran traded fresh attacks from Tuesday night to Wednesday, marking a new round of escalation.
The United States has launched strikes against 80 Iranian targets allegedly in response to recent Iranian attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Later, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked 85 U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait.
One IRGC serviceman was killed in U.S. strikes in the port city of Bandar-e Mahshahr, Iran's state-run IRIB news agency reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump said later on Wednesday in Ankara on the sidelines of the NATO summit that the ceasefire with Iran "is over." He then said that the United States may hit Iran again "hard tonight," resume a naval blockade against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, and possibly take over Iran's Kharg Island. ■
