Photo credit: Aljazeera
The United States attacked Iran early Sunday morning over an Iranian strike on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz that set the container ship ablaze and forced its crew to abandon it. Iran apparently responded with attacks targeting Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The Associated Press reports that the Strait has become the key sticking point in any further negotiations between Iran and the United States to find a permanent end to the war that began back on February 28. About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the Strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.
The US military’s Central Command said it hit some 1490 targets in the strikes, far more than the last two rounds, and went after missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites.
The attacks “degraded Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the Strait,” it said.
The new crossfire in the Persian Gulf comes after US President Donald Trump suggested an interim deal in the Iran war was “over.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and main negotiator, responded.
“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” he wrote on social media, “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”
The United Arab Emirates warned the public Sunday of an incoming missile and drone attack, as explosions could be heard in nearby Qatar. A missile alert sounded in Qatar shortly after the blasts. Qatar’s military said in a statement that it intercepted the incoming Iranian fire.
Meanwhile, missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. Kuwait’s military said it was intercepting incoming fire.
It wasn’t immediately clear what locations were under attack in the UAE, which so far hadn’t been targeted in the latest round of attacks by Iran. The latest attack on the Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, came in May when a drone sparked a fire on the edge of the country’s sole nuclear power plant.
