The United States and Iran continued their attacks in the Gulf on Sunday as each accused the other of violating an interim deal signed less than two weeks ago to end their four-month-old war. The latest exchanges threaten to unravel the fragile ceasefire and plunge the region back into full-scale conflict.
Shortly after President Donald Trump warned the US might ‘militarily complete the job,’ Iran early on Sunday launched missiles and drones at US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, continuing a series of escalating attacks. The US military said it had struck Iran again overnight, hours after a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Iran had largely shut down for most of the conflict.
The 14-point US-Iran interim agreement was meant to halt the fighting—which the US and Israel started on February 28—and reopen the strait to shipping while talks began on more deep-seated issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for global oil supplies.
One round of mediated talks, led by Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago. Washington then waived sanctions on Tehran, but the fighting and recriminations have since resumed and intensified.
‘There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,’ Trump posted on social media. ‘If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!’
About an hour after Trump’s post, the Kuwaiti army said its air defenses were responding to hostile missile and drone attacks, while sirens sounded in Bahrain, according to that country’s interior ministry. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its navy and air forces had launched joint missile and drone operations targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain in response to recent US strikes against Iran.
A US official, confirming the attacks on the facilities, said the situation was still unfolding but there were no reported US casualties or major damage to US sites in the Middle East at this time.
The Guards said in a statement that US strikes had violated the ceasefire and ‘will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes,’ according to state-run Press TV. ‘American bases in the region will experience hell in the coming days,’ the statement said.
US Central Command said earlier that its forces had carried out fresh strikes after a Panama-flagged tanker was attacked by an Iranian drone on Saturday. ‘Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to,’ Central Command said in a statement, adding the strikes were in direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping and targeted Iranian military surveillance, communications, air defence, drone storage and mine-laying facilities.
Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said explosions were heard in Sirik in southern Iran, without providing further details. The Guards said ‘America’s blind shots at Sirik will not resolve our dominance over the Strait of Hormuz. But our shots at violators will remind the rest of the vessels of the clear passage route.’
Read more: Hezbollah rejects US-brokered Israel-Lebanon security deal as surrender
The situation remains highly volatile, with both sides blaming each other for jeopardising the peace process. The international community has called for restraint, but the prospect of renewed full-scale war looms large.
Source: ARY News