Iran and US step up attacks and threaten to escalate

[DUBAI/WASHINGTON] Iran launched missiles and drones on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain early on Sunday (Jun 28), shortly after President Donald Trump threatened to wipe out the Iranian leadership if they did not stick to the interim agreement to end their war.

Israel said on Sunday it had struck Iran-backed armed Hizbollah militants in Lebanon on Saturday, just a day after it agreed the latest ceasefire deal with Lebanon to calm fighting that Iran says must end if the wider agreement is to stick.

The US military said earlier it had struck Iran again, hours after a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Teheran has largely closed for most of the conflict.

“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 said on social media.

“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” he added.

The 14-point interim peace accord was meant to halt the fighting, which the US and Israel started on Feb 28, and reopen the strait while talks proceeded on issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

Violence, accusations follow peace deal

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 and Washington waived sanctions on Teheran, but fighting has since resumed and intensified.

About an hour after Trump’s post, Kuwait’s army said its air defences were responding to missile and drone attacks, while Bahrain said sirens had sounded there.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement its navy and air forces had launched missile and drone operations targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.

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Iran fires missiles, drones at Bahrain, Kuwait

US carries out fresh strikes against Iran

The Guards said US strikes had violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, state-run Press TV said. The IRGC navy command said American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.

A US official, confirming the attacks on US facilities, told Reuters there were no reported American casualties or major damage to US sites in the Middle East but the situation was still unfolding.

Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, where authorities said an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported. Bahrain urged the United Nations Security Council to hold an urgent session to hold Iran accountable.

The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles with no damage or casualties.

Focus on strait, shaky ceasefire in Lebanon

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.

US 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, it said.

Explosions were heard in Sirik in southern Iran, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said without providing 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.”

Saturday’s tanker attack in the strait followed one on a cargo ship on Thursday that triggered the latest escalation.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said responsibility for returning maritime traffic in the strait to pre-war levels lay solely with Teheran and urged others not to intervene “in Iran’s administration of the strait”.

Washington has been promoting a southern lane along the coast of Oman, while Teheran, which ultimately aims to charge fees for use of the strait, wants ships to use a northern route through its waters and under its control.

Hundreds of ships stranded in the strait, which carried one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the conflict, including tankers laden with oil, began leaving over the past two weeks, sending oil prices back close to pre-war levels.

Even as attacks continued on Sunday morning, CMA CGM’s Galapagos container ship exited the strait in what the shipping giant called “an important milestone in a regional context that remains complex and requires constant vigilance”.

Lebanon strikes

In Lebanon, Israel said on Sunday it had killed Hizbollah militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and struck a rocket launcher in the Nabatieh area.

There was no immediate response from Hizbollah.

Israel, which is not a party to the US-Iran deal, and Lebanon have repeatedly agreed to US-brokered ceasefires, the latest on Friday.

But these have had only limited effect, with Israel insisting it will not withdraw from Lebanese territory it has seized and Hizbollah repeatedly rejecting calls to give up its arms as long as Israeli troops remain in place.

US ally Israel invaded in March after Hizbollah attacked it in support of Iran.

Araqchi said Israel’s withdrawal and a halt to its strikes in Lebanon were mandated by the interim deal with the US and it was Washington’s responsibility to stop its operations. REUTERS