Iran, US step up attacks and threaten to escalate conflict

DUBAI/WASHINGTON – Iran launched missiles and drones on American military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain early on June 28, shortly after US President Donald Trump threatened to wipe out the Iranian leadership if it does not stick to the interim agreement to end the US-Iran war.

Israel struck Iran-backed armed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on June 27, just a day after it agreed to 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 that 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 Iran had largely cut off 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 US-Iran interim agreement was meant to halt the fighting, which the US and Israel started on Feb 28, and reopen the strait to shipping while talks began on more deep-seated issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

One round of mediated talks, led by US Vice-President J.D. Vance and Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington then waived sanctions on Tehran, but the fighting and recriminations have since resumed and intensified.

About an hour after Trump’s post, the Kuwaiti army said its air defences 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 (IRGC) said its navy and air forces launched missile and drone operations targeting American military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain in response to recent US strikes against Iran.

The IRGC said in a statement that the US strikes violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, according to state-run Press TV.

The IRGC navy command said American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.

A US official said there were no reported American casualties or major damage to US sites in the Middle East, but that the situation was still unfolding.

Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, with the authorities saying an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported.

Bahrain urged the UN Security Council to conduct an urgent session to hold Iran accountable.

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

US Central Command said on June 27 that its forces carried out fresh strikes after a Panama-flagged tanker was attacked by an Iranian drone early that day.

“Iran was given a chance to honour the ceasefire agreement but elected not to,” US Central Command said in a statement.

It said 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.

‘America’s blind spots’

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said explosions were heard in Sirik in southern Iran, without providing details.

The IRGC 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.”

The tanker attack on June 27 in the strait followed one on a cargo ship on June 25 that triggered the latest escalation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said responsibility for returning maritime traffic in the strait to pre-war levels lay solely with Tehran 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 Tehran, 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, including tankers laden with oil, have been blockaded inside the Gulf since war broke out.

As the ships began leaving through the strait over the past two weeks, oil prices tumbled close to pre-war levels on the surge in supply.

Even as attacks continued early on June 28, 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”.

In Lebanon, Israel said on June 28 that it killed Hezbollah militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and struck a rocket launcher in the Nabatieh area. There was no immediate response from Hezbollah.

Israel, which is not a party to the US-Iran deal, and Lebanon have repeatedly agreed to US-brokered ceasefires, the latest on June 27.

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

Israel invaded in March after Hezbollah attacked it in support of Iran.

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