Iran, US continue escalating attacks, recriminations over peace deal

CAIRO/WASHINGTON: Iran and the US continued their attacks in the Gulf as each accused the other of violating an increasingly precarious interim deal signed ​less than two weeks ago to end their four-month-old war.

Shortly after President Donald Trump warned the US might “militarily complete the job”, Iran early on Sunday launched missiles and drones on US military sites ‌in Kuwait and Bahrain, continuing a series of escalating attacks.

Beyond the Gulf, Israel said it had struck Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon as fighting continued in an area Tehran says is key to its peace deal with Washington.

The US military said earlier 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.

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The 14-point US-Iran interim agreement was meant ​to halt the fighting, which the US and Israel started on February 28, and reopen the strait to shipping while talks proceeded on more deep-seated issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

One round of mediated talks, ​led by Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington then waived sanctions on Tehran, but ⁠the fighting and recriminations have since resumed and intensified.

“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 ​posted on social media. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”

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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 said its navy and air forces had launched missile and drone operations targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain in response to recent US strikes against Iran.

The Guards said in a statement the US strikes had 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, confirming the attacks ​on US facilities, told Reuters there were no reported US 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 U.N. Security Council to hold an urgent session to hold Iran accountable.

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

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U.S. Central Command said earlier that its forces had carried out fresh strikes after a Panama-flagged tanker was attacked by an Iranian drone on Saturday.

“Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement but elected not to,” Central Command said in a statement, adding that its 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.

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Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said explosions were heard in Sirik in southern Iran, 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 is seeking to assert control over the strait, which carried one-fifth of global oil and LNG supplies before the war and which had just begun to reopen after months of disruption.

Hundreds of ships, including tankers laden with oil, have been blockaded inside the Gulf since war ​broke out. As they 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 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”.

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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.

In Lebanon, Israel said on Sunday it had killed Hezbollah armed with rocket-propelled grenades and ⁠struck a rocket ​launcher in the Nabatieh area.

There was no immediate response from Hezbollah.

Iran accuses the US of violating its commitment under the peace deal to ​sustaining a ceasefire in Lebanon, which US ally Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah.

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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 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.