Iran launched drone and missile attacks on Sunday, 28, against Bahrain and Kuwait, in response to US airstrikes that hit the Persian country, and threatened “total suspension” of negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.
Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without direct Iranian oversight have triggered the crossfire now plaguing the region and have put negotiations for a lasting truce at risk. A multinational maritime body overseen by the US Navy said on Saturday the 27th that it would expand a route near Oman for inbound and outbound traffic, creating a new point of tension with Tehran.
The international community has long considered the strait an international transit route, despite it being located in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels passing through a route on the Omani side of the strait, supported by a United Nations agency.
Iran insists it alone should govern the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated this claim during a state visit to Iraq on Sunday.
“Any interference in this issue, any attempt to establish new or different agreements from those currently in force by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to further complications, delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and increase the level of tension, just as the last two nights have witnessed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz that have led to increased tension and confrontation,” he said in Baghdad.
The United States and Iran are still debating the terms of an interim peace deal, including cross-strait navigation arrangements, an end to the U.S. blockade and sanctions and defining the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. According to the memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month, the two nations have 60 days to work out the details.
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The attacks threaten to derail the deal before it can be finalized. Continuing fighting in Lebanon, where an Israeli soldier was killed by Hezbollah gunfire in the early hours of Sunday, has also threatened the agreement.
Attacks target Gulf countries that host US military forces
Kuwait’s military said air defenses intercepted Iranian drones and missiles on Sunday morning, shortly after the US strikes.
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Kuwait, home to a major US Army base, said it detected and intercepted two ballistic missiles, with no reports of injuries or damage.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said the Iranian strikes damaged a residential building near the international airport and that there were no fatalities. The ministry released photos of an eight-story building, with the top floor destroyed, full of rubble and with windows blown out.
Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base in the country came under repeated attacks during the war. The building damaged on Sunday was not close to the fleet headquarters in central Manama.
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Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry denounced what it called a “dangerous escalation that reveals that what Tehran is doing is not a passing act, nor an isolated incident, but rather a deliberate approach and a systematic pattern of repeated aggression.”
The Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s paramilitary force, claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Trump accuses Iran of violating ceasefire with ship attack
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The latest U.S. strikes come after the U.S. and Iran exchanged attacks earlier in the weekend.
