CAIRO/WASHINGTON: Iran and the U.S. 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 U.S. might “militarily complete the job”, Iran early on Sunday launched missiles and drones on U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, continuing a series of escalating attacks.
Beyond the Gulf, Israel said it had struck Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon as fighting continued in an area Tehran says is key to its peace deal with Washington.
The U.S. 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.
VIOLENCE, ACCUSATIONS
The 14-point U.S.-Iran interim agreement was meant to halt the fighting, which the U.S. 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!”
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 U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain in response to recent U.S. strikes against Iran.–Reuters
