Iran targeted a US air base in Kuwait on Thursday after the United States struck what Washington described as an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump also rejected reports of a compromise deal with Tehran.
The attacks, though limited, highlighted the fragility of negotiations to turn the tenuous ceasefire that took effect in early April into an agreement to end the three-month war, which has killed thousands, and reopen the vital shipping route.
Iran Responds to US Drone Strike
US Central Command said US forces had shot down five Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a sixth drone. Kuwaiti forces then intercepted a ballistic missile fired toward the country, which hosts a large US base.
“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire”, a US official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted the US base responsible for an early-morning attack near Bandar Abbas airport and that any repeat would lead to a “more decisive response”, Tasnim news agency reported.
Kuwait condemned the attack and demanded that Iran immediately halt what it described as a serious escalation.
A Wider Regional Fallout
The violence, the second flare-up this week, coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, celebrated across the region. Several countries have since been drawn into the conflict, which began on 28 February and has killed thousands.
In Lebanon, which Iran says must be part of any overall agreement to end hostilities, Israel said it had begun striking infrastructure used by Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Tyre and had carried out a strike in Beirut.
The Lebanese army said a strike had killed one of its soldiers. Israel, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people with a push deep into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, said air raid sirens had gone off in its north.
Oil prices rebounded, with US crude futures up around 3% after falling 5% on Wednesday. Stocks fell and the dollar rose as investors lost confidence in a peace deal that many see as key to easing global inflation risks.
Trump Rejects Strait Deal Reports
Trump has repeatedly said the end of the war is close, but told reporters at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he was not yet satisfied with the negotiations and that the US was not discussing sanctions relief, one of Tehran’s demands.
He dismissed an Iranian state television report about an unofficial draft agreement to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within a month, with Iran and Gulf state Oman jointly managing traffic.
Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway and appeared to threaten Oman, with which the US has decades-long military and economic ties.
“Nobody’s going to control (the strait)”, Trump said. “It’s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”
Oman has not commented on the idea of joint control of the strait with Iran, with which it says it has discussed freedom of navigation.
Tehran expressed solidarity with Oman after what it called “US officials’ threats”. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reasserted their control of the strait, saying they had stopped two vessels and let 26 through in the past 24 hours. More than 100 ships passed through the waterway daily on average before the war.
Iran Presses Its Demands
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a letter to parliament that Iran had emerged strengthened by the war and urged legislators to preserve national unity, repair damage and address hardship, inflation and corruption, state media said.
Ali Bagheri Kani, deputy secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, said Tehran was insisting that the United States release Iranian funds, according to Tasnim.
Iran is also seeking an end to a US blockade of its ports and the lifting of sanctions. The US Treasury Department said on Wednesday that it had extended sanctions by adding Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which was set up to manage passage through the strait.
Foreign vessels passed freely through the waterway before the war under international legal guarantees.
Iranian state television said the draft deal would also require the US to withdraw military forces from the immediate vicinity, with further discussion on US troops in the region. The White House said the report was a “complete fabrication”. Tehran did not comment.
Iranian sources have said the nuclear issue will be discussed in further talks over 60 days. That may not be acceptable to some of Trump’s closest supporters, who want Iran’s nuclear program dismantled. Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes only.
“The bottom line is Iran’s never going to have a nuclear weapon”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.