Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday, September 5, that it had attacked a United States aircraft carrier and a destroyer with ballistic missiles. US forces had not confirmed the strike, CNN Brasil reported. The claim came hours after the US Central Command (Centcom) released footage of bombings against three Iranian tankers, one of them near Kharg Island, the terminal that handles about 90 percent of the crude oil Iran exports.
According to Centcom, the strikes on the tankers were retaliation for IRGC ballistic missile launches against two US Navy ships. "If Iran fires on US ships, we will destroy (and sink) its oil tankers," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on social network X. Admiral Brad Cooper, who heads Central Command, said the message to the IRGC was clear: anyone who fires on two American ships will pay "an even greater economic cost", with three tankers destroyed in return. The semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim said four American missiles hit a tanker in the Kharg anchorage area, with no casualties, and that the crew was being evacuated. Centcom said no US service member was injured, and Reuters could not independently verify where and when the released video was recorded.
For Brazil, the new chapter of the war feeds a debate already open in Brasilia. Citing international tensions and friction with Washington, including the US designation of the Brazilian gangs Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) as terrorist organizations, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government set aside about 148 billion reais for the Ministry of Defense in the 2027 budget proposal sent to Congress this week, the sixth-largest allocation in the plan, according to the news site g1. In June, Lula said he would raise defense spending because the world is "full of crazy people" and he did not want to be caught by surprise; in July, he cited the interest of the United States, Russia and China in rare earths and critical minerals as he argued the armed forces must be "prepared". The money covers Brazil's nuclear submarine program and the Labgene reactor prototype in Iperó, in São Paulo state. In August, Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro admitted the country could not fight the United States militarily and joked that, in an invasion scenario, he would "open the gate".
How the war began
The conflict started on February 28, when US President Donald Trump announced a "large scale" attack on Iran, with the declared goal of eliminating "imminent threats" tied to the country's nuclear program. The joint US and Israeli bombings caused thousands of deaths and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Iranian press and authorities. Iran answered with attacks across the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries about 20 percent of the world's oil. The American military buildup in the region, weeks before the war began, was the largest since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
A fragile ceasefire signed in June did not hold. In July, Washington revoked the license that allowed Iran to sell oil and launched a new offensive, and the two countries have traded strikes regularly since. Iran attacked US installations in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, while the Americans kept up 13 consecutive nights of bombings, which on July 24 hit the IRGC Navy headquarters in Zibakenar, in northern Iran, killing at least four people. According to CNN, the escalation of the past week threatens to deepen a conflict that has disrupted global energy supplies and is already opposed by a majority of Americans ahead of the November congressional elections.
What each side wants
Washington wants an end to Iran's nuclear program and freedom of navigation in the Gulf, through a strategy that mixes sanctions with bombings of oil export infrastructure. Iran treats control of the Strait of Hormuz as its main card: analysts cited by CNN say the attacks on ships are meant to strengthen Tehran's position in negotiations over a long-term peace deal. Iran's main joint military command, the Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, has threatened a "devastating response" and said Tehran will not allow American interference in running the strait. The Financial Times, republished by the Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico, reported that Iran faces economic problems and warns that new attacks will be "more painful". Caught in the middle are Gulf states that host US bases, such as Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, already hit by Iranian missiles and drones, and Qatar, which has blamed Tehran for attacks on commercial ships. Britain now advises against non-essential travel to Kuwait and Bahrain.