The Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced that they had fired ballistic missiles toward the Ali Al-Salem air base in Kuwait, where United States aircraft are stationed, and the headquarters of the American Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
This Saturday, Iran attacked targets in and in response to US attacks, despite the ceasefire, further damaging the ongoing negotiations, particularly due to the issue of frozen Iranian assets.
Since the truce of April 8, hostilities had almost ceased between the United States and Iran, but have recently resumed, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic sea lane for hydrocarbons controlled by Tehran.
Kuwait and Bahrain, which had already been attacked earlier in the week, condemned Iran’s new “blatant aggressions”, classifying them as “a dangerous escalation” and a threat to “the lives of citizens and residents”. Such attacks “constitute a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State”, added the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement cited by the news agency France-Presse (AFP).
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced that they were heading towards the Ali Al-Salem air base, in Kuwait, where United States aircraft are stationed, and the headquarters of the American Fifth Fleet, in Bahrain.
“We were woken up by deafening explosions. The blasts were extremely loud. My children were terrified and I couldn’t calm them down”, testified an Egyptian who lives in Kuwait to AFP.
According to the North American military Central Command (Centcom), of a total of seven missiles, “six were intercepted and a seventh did not reach the expected target”.
US forces had previously attacked Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in the city of Goruk and the island of Qeshm “in order to defend themselves against further attacks,” Centcom added. The army also reported that Iranian drones were “launched toward the Strait of Hormuz” and posed an “immediate threat to regional maritime traffic.”
On the diplomatic front, negotiations between the two parties have made no progress in recent days. Iranian Supreme Leader Mohsen Rezaei’s military advisor even spoke of a negotiating impasse during an interview with . Rezaei suggested to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, that he break the impasse by releasing 24 billion dollars (20.8 billion euros, at current exchange rates) of Iranian funds frozen due to US sanctions.
“If we want to reach an agreement with Iran, these 24 billion dollars constitute a test of confidence (…) that the United States must overcome for the path to open,” he stated. “It’s our own money, not the United States’,” Rezaei added.
The negotiations aim to put an end to the war triggered by the offensive that the United States and Israel launched against Iran on February 28.
Iran reacted with attacks against countries in the region, including Kuwait and Bahrain, and with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the hydrocarbons on the world market usually pass.
The war caused thousands of deaths, especially in Iran and Lebanon, a country that was drawn into the conflict by attacks by the Lebanese group Hezbollah against Israel in support of Tehran. The conflict also caused increases in oil prices with global repercussions, raising fears of an economic recession and the degradation of living conditions for populations in countries with fewer resources.
