Trump and Iran trade new threats after strikes exchanged

President Donald Trump has said the US will hit Iran "hard" on Wednesday, after the two sides exchanged strikes overnight.

"We hit them hard yesterday and we're going to hit them hard again today," he said, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office. He also reiterated a call for Iran to "sign a deal".

Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X following Trump's briefing that Iran "will stand firm against any pressure or threat".

The US launched strikes on Iran on Tuesday after Trump said Iran had shot down a US Army helicopter.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it responded with strikes on US bases in the region.

Earlier on Wednesday Trump wrote on his social media account: "They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!"

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqai meanwhile accused the US of "damaging this diplomatic process through the contradictory messages it sends, its repeated shifts in positions and demands, and, worst of all, through repeated violations of the ceasefire".

He said Iran needed to re-assess the situation, adding that any diplomatic process required a minimum of stability.

Separately on Wednesday, the US military said it had struck an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman that had "violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to transport oil from Iran".

The Indian government said three Indian sailors were missing and 21 crew had been rescued after an attack on the Settebello off the coast of Oman.

The US is blockading Iranian ports after the key Strait of Hormuz shipping route was effectively closed by Iran in response to the US and Israeli attacks on Tehran in February. The Settebello is the eighth ship the US has fired on.

Tuesday's US strikes on Iran targeted Iranian defence systems, ground control stations and radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz, Centcom said.

Iranian state media said US strikes had hit two reservoirs in the area, leaving thousands of people in the southern port town of Sirik without access to drinking water for 12 hours.

Iran's IRGC said it had launched strikes on 21 targets at American bases in the region, one in Bahrain and the other in Jordan, while Kuwait's army said it was also intercepting an attack.

Reuters cited a US official on Wednesday as saying nearly all of the Iranian missiles and drones launched at US bases in the Middle East in response were intercepted, with no reported casualties.

On Tuesday, Centcom described its strikes on Iran as "a proportional response" for the Apache helicop