Trump warns Iran will ‘pay the price’ for delay to peace deal after strikes exchanged

Updated June 11, 2026 — 2:56am,first published June 10, 2026 — 3:45am

Dubai/Washington: US President Donald Trump said Iran had taken too long to negotiate a deal and would now “have to pay the price”, threatening to “hit them again”, while Tehran said it would reassess diplomatic engagement with Washington after tit-for-tat strikes.

“Iran is all talk and no action,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday (US time). “They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”

Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office what he meant by his post, Trump said: “Well, we’re going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard.” He cited Iran’s shooting down of an American Apache attack helicopter as the reason, but noted he still wanted Iran to sign the deal to end the conflict.

“We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today, in case you miss it, in case you don’t turn on your television set,” he said. “And we’ll set what happens with the deal.”

As Trump spoke at the White House, the US military’s Central Command (Centcom) revealed it had fired on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday night which it claimed was attempting to transport oil from Iran in violation of the ongoing US blockade.

Centcom said a US aircraft fired precision munitions into the engine room of the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello “after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces”.

The US launched airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) after blaming Tehran for the crash of the American attack helicopter, prompting new attacks from Iran and further widening the retaliatory strikes that threaten to derail efforts to end the war.

In response, Iran launched attacks on sites in Bahrain and Kuwait, which both sounded alerts and fired air defences in response. Jordan also reported shooting down five missiles that Iran shot at an air base hosting American forces.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tehran would reassess diplomatic engagement with Washington after what it called repeated ceasefire violations. “Any diplomatic process requires a minimum stable environment,” Esmaeil Baghaei said.

The US attacks were the first American strikes on Iran since the ceasefire came into effect on April 8.

Since the US and Israel started the war with strikes on Iran on February 28, the conflict has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices and made many basics, including food, more expensive.

Officials have been unable to turn the April ceasefire