Trump warns US may have to 'destroy' Iran as talks claimed

Strait of Hormuz — Donald Trump has warned that the United States may have to "destroy" the rest of Iran, even as he said Washington is in contact with representatives of Tehran, Al Jazeera reported.

The US president's remarks came after he held a phone call with Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to the network's live coverage of the war. Trump said the US was talking to Tehran's representatives, though he gave no detail of who was involved or what was discussed.

On the water, the confrontation continued. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers struck mines and caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, and a third tanker later reported an explosion while transiting the strait. The IRGC also said it had shot down a US drone over Qeshm Island, the Iranian island at the mouth of the waterway. None of the IRGC's claims could be independently verified.

The exchange captures the strange rhythm of this war: open hostilities at sea and in the air, alongside back-channel diplomacy. Qatar, which maintains ties with both Washington and Tehran, has served as a conduit before, and the Emir's call with Trump suggests Doha is again carrying messages between the two capitals.

In Washington, the political pressure is also building. Jason Crow, a Democratic congressman, said his party must use its power in Congress to bring the US war on Iran to an end, Al Jazeera reported — a sign that the conflict is now contested ground at home as well as in the Gulf.

For now, the people with the most at stake are the crews still moving tankers through the strait and the residents of Qeshm and the surrounding coast, who have heard claims of downed drones and burning ships become part of daily life. What they are waiting for is whether the contacts Trump described amount to genuine negotiations — or merely talk layered over a war that, by his own words, could yet grow far more destructive.