America has not yet learned that coercion and bad faith are no longer costless. Let me be clear: you hit, you eat.
Don’t use your hands and feet because you will sink further: the Strait of Hormuz will only be opened with “Iranian arrangements” and not with American threats.— Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) July 9, 2026
Ghalibaf also said the Strait of Hormuz would reopen only on Iran’s terms. “Don’t flail around pointlessly, or you’ll sink even deeper. The Strait of Hormuz will only open with ‘Iranian arrangements,’ not American threats,” he said.
His remarks came after US President Donald Trump said the United States would respond with greater force if Iran launched further attacks.
Asked whether the two countries were heading towards another full-scale conflict, Trump replied, “I don’t know.” He added, “We just hit them very hard. We hit them 20 to 1. Every time they hit us, we are going to hit them 20.”
Senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaee also criticised the United States, saying Washington turned to negotiations when military pressure failed but later abandoned its commitments.
He warned that “the response to every new adventure will be unprecedented strikes from Iran.”
When they do not get anywhere by force, they quickly turn to negotiation and agreement, and as soon as they reach it, they seek its destruction. In American political logic, negotiation is only a bridge to cross, not a lasting commitment!
The answer to any new adventure will be unprecedented strikes from Iran.— Mohsen Rezaee (@ir_rezaee) July 8, 2026
The exchange came after a 60-day ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran, agreed last month, collapsed this week.
The ceasefire had reopened the Strait of Hormuz, but fighting resumed after Iran was accused of attacking commercial vessels near the waterway, prompting fresh US strikes and retaliatory Iranian attacks on US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.
