Hostilities flare in Iran war, oil jumps with talks at a stalemate

[CAIRO/WASHINGTON] Gulf hostilities flared anew on Wednesday (Jun 3), with the US military saying Iranian missile attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and other regional targets were either thwarted or failed, as diplomacy between Washington and Teheran showed little progress.

Two Iranian missiles shot at Kuwait fell short or broke apart in flight, while several ballistic missiles aimed at regional targets failed and three missiles heading for Bahrain were intercepted, US Central Command said.

Since the conflict began in late February, Iran has repeatedly attacked targets in the Gulf region where US military bases are located.

Central Command said that the US military also downed Iranian drones targeting civilian ships in regional waters and US forces in Kuwait, and carried out strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz following attempted attacks by Iran.

According to Iranian state media, the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) attacked the US Fifth Fleet headquarters, located in Bahrain, as well as an airbase and helicopters in an unspecified regional country using missiles and drones in response to what the IRGC described as a US attack on a communications tower south of Qeshm.

Central Command said that all the attacks failed and that US forces remained ready to repel “unwarranted Iranian aggression”.

The latest flare-up, which lifted oil prices by more than 1 per cent in early trade on Wednesday, comes more than three months after the initial US and Israeli strikes on Iran, with the conflict mired in a stalemate under a shaky ceasefire and the Strait of Hormuz largely closed to maritime traffic.

Iran and the US said last week that they had reached a tentative initial agreement to halt the war. But the two sides have yet to sign off on the deal.

Iranian media reported that Teheran has not communicated with Washington for several days, but US President Donald Trump said negotiations have not stopped.

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“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” he said in a social media post.

Discussions on nuclear programme

Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said that he is close to a deal that would end the fighting and allow negotiators to tackle thorny issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump has said that stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is his top priority. Iran denies it is developing a nuclear bomb and says its atomic programme is for peaceful purposes.

Teheran is seeking access to billions of US dollars in oil revenues, waivers on crude exports, a lifting of a US blockade on its ports and continued leverage over the strait, which handled a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas traffic before the war.

Iranian media said that the IRGC’s navy targeted a vessel it identified as “Panaya” with missiles in response to what it said was a US attack on an Iranian tanker near Hormuz.

“Disrupting the security of the Strait of Hormuz will carry a heavy price for the US military,” Iranian media cited the IRGC as saying.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that the US would agree to sanctions relief only if Iran agrees to give up its nuclear activity.

Rubio declared, “The war is over”, during a sharp exchange with Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who disagreed.

Israel keeps up strikes in Lebanon

The war that began on Feb 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, while also causing global economic pain by pushing up energy prices. It also triggered the latest round of conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, with Israel pursuing its deepest incursion into Lebanon in 25 years.

On Tuesday, Israel kept up strikes on a string of towns in southern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said, despite a US-mediated partial ceasefire announced on Monday.

The announcement failed to reassure many Lebanese, 1.2 million of whom have been displaced, and an Israeli drone over Beirut kept residents on edge on Tuesday.

“Every time we return to our homes, there is a warning for us to be displaced again,” said Faten Al Chehime, who fled to a displacement camp from her home in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday, only two weeks after returning there. At sea, the world’s largest shipping group MSC, said on Tuesday that one of its vessels was struck by two projectiles while in Iraq’s Umm Qasr port the previous day.

The IRGC said that it carried out the attack in retaliation for a US attack on an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman. The wide-reaching impact of the crisis was laid bare by UN children’s agency UNICEF, which said surging transport costs and supply chain disruptions were hindering life-saving aid for Gaza, Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and elsewhere. REUTERS