Tala Ramadan, Eman Abouhassira and Phil Stewart
Updated ,first published
Dubai/Washington: Iran launched missiles and drones at US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, shortly after US President Donald Trump threatened to wipe out the Iranian leadership if they did not stick to the interim agreement to end their war.
However, American news site Axios reported early on Monday (AEST) that the US and Iran had agreed to stop attacking each other, citing a senior US official. The two sides now plan to meet Tuesday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, to work out their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reported. There was no confirmation from Iran or the White House.
The Tuesday talks were originally set to be held in Switzerland and focus on Iran’s nuclear program, but Axios reported that the recent escalation in fighting had prompted a shift to Qatar and a refocus on the strait.
The US military on Sunday said it had struck Iran again, hours after a tanker was hit in the strait, the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Tehran 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 said.
Also on Sunday, Israel said it had struck Iran-backed armed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, 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 14-point interim peace accord was meant to halt the fighting, which the US and Israel started on February 28, and reopen the strait while talks proceeded on issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran did not take part in technical talks slated for Sunday because of the recent attacks on the country and unfulfilled conditions of the Memorandum of Understanding with the US, a member of the Office of Preservation and Publication of the Works of Iran’s Supreme Leader told state TV on Monday morning (AEST).
“For example, one of the reasons is checking if we have access to the unfrozen funds, if there is no access then this condition has not been fulfilled,” Mehdi Fazaeili said.
One round of mediated talks, led by Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington waived sanctions on Tehran, but fighting has since resumed and intensified.
About an hour after Trump’s post on Sunday, 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.
The Guards said US strikes had violated the ceasefire and would “result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, state-run Press TV said. The IRGC navy command said American bases in the region would “experience hell in the coming days”.
A US official, confirming Iran had targeted US facilities, told Reuters there were no reported US casualties or major damage to its 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. Separately, Qatar said one of its nationals had died after sustaining injuries from shrapnel aboard a vessel that had gone missing on Saturday. A second person was injured in the incident, which was due to “military operations in the area”, the interior ministry said, without giving a location or apportioning blame.
US Central Command said its forces had carried out the new strikes after a Panama-flagged tanker was attacked by an Iranian drone on Saturday.
“Iran was given a chance to honour 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 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 stranded in the strait, which carried one-fifth of global oil and LNG 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”.
In Lebanon, Israel said on Sunday it had killed Hezbollah militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and struck a rocket launcher in the Nabatieh area.
The Israeli military said it had also destroyed underground infrastructure used by Hezbollah in a village in southern Lebanon, according to a joint statement by from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday (AEST).
The US was informed ahead of the attack, which targeted a 200-metre tunnel in the town of Majdal Zoun, according to the statement. The Israeli statement said the tunnel contained hundreds of weapons and launchers.
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 Friday.
But these have had only a 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.
US ally Israel invaded in March after Hezbollah 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
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
