Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes and threatens to halt talks

Iran again launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday in response to new US airstrikes against the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.

Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight sparked the days of crossfire and have imperiled the talks for a lasting ceasefire.

A multinational maritime body overseen by the US navy said on Saturday it would expand a route near Oman for inbound and outbound traffic, setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran.

The global community has long considered the strait an international passageway, despite its location in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters.

In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels going through a route on the Omani side in an evacuation effort backed by a United Nations agency.

Iran insists that it alone must 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 the claim on Sunday.

“Any attempt to establish new or separate arrangements from those currently being carried out 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,” Mr Araghchi said.

The US and Iran have been debating the terms of an interim deal, including shipping arrangements on the strait, the removal of a US blockade on Iranian ports and sanctions on Iran and the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed this month, they have 60 days to iron out details.

The interim deal is meant to end fighting on all fronts before certain key issues can be discussed. Continued fighting in Lebanon, where an Israeli soldier was killed by Hezbollah fire early on Sunday, also threatens the agreement.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for the attacks in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Kuwait’s military said air defences intercepted Iranian drones and missiles just after the US strikes in Iran.

Kuwait, which hosts a major US military base, said it intercepted two ballistic missiles.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Bahrain’s interior ministry said the Iranian strikes damaged a residential building near the international airport and no-one was killed.

The ministry released photos of an eight-storey building, its top floor destroyed and windows blown out.

Bahrain is home to the US navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base came under repeated attack during the war. The damaged building was not near the fleet’s headquarters.

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 US military’s central command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea on Saturday.

The Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key mediator between Iran and the US.

US President Donald Trump on social media accused Iran of violating the ceasefire and warned of a point where the US may no longer be reasonable “and will be forced to militarily complete the job”.

“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Mr Trump wrote.

The exchanges of fire began when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off Oman on Thursday and the US military retaliated with strikes.

Ship traffic on the strait had increased over the past 72 hours, off both Iran and Oman, the multinational maritime body overseen by the US navy said on Sunday, adding that “US-assisted commercial transits continued uninterrupted despite the elevated threat environment”.

It said 89 such transits had been made, still below the historical average of 138 vessels a day.

Last week, Israel and the Lebanese government signed a framework agreement to end the latest fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, which began two days after the Iran war began when Hezbollah fired at Israel.

Israel responded with an invasion that has occupied large swaths of southern Lebanon, and it has said it will not withdraw until Hezbollah is disarmed.

But last week’s deal did not include Iran or Hezbollah, which has criticised the deal and rejected calls to disarm.