President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States would hit Iran "very hard tonight" and wanted eventually to take Iran's oil infrastructure hub Kharg Island, after tit-for-tat strikes in the Gulf.
Iranian sources and Western officials said indirect U.S.-Iranian talks on a preliminary peace deal had intensified. But a worsening of hostilities this week has undermined prospects for a swift end to more than three months of war.
Trump threatened new strikes on Iran after the two sides traded air attacks on Thursday for the second successive day.
"The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defence, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT," Trump said in a social media post.
"At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets," he said, referring to Iran's main oil hub.
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