During the day, Iranian drones struck one vessel off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, and another, several hours later, off the coast of neighboring Iraq. The day before, the IRGC had said in a statement that it had also fired on two US military vessels.
Iranian state media claimed that a new type of missile, with improved maneuverability, had been used in the recent attack on US ships. Unnamed US officials told the Wall Street Journal that suspicion is growing within the White House over possible Chinese or Russian involvement in developing Iran's weapons capabilities.
Jordan Between a Rock and a Hard Place
In a further sign of horizontal escalation, Tehran once again bombed bases in Jordan, striking the Muwaffaq Salti base primarily with drones and ballistic missiles carrying unauthorized cluster munitions.
Footage circulating on social media showed the projectile breaking apart over the Jordanian base. Iran also fired on the Red Sea city of Aqaba, not far from the Israeli port of Eilat.
Neither Tehran nor Washington is a signatory to the UN convention banning this type of munition. Human Rights Watch has also pointed to a retaliatory strike on Israel in March that injured at least 15 people, according to reports at the time. Two weeks earlier, a cluster bomb attack had claimed the lives of two Israelis.
Iran continued its attacks on Wednesday, striking up to 10 ships in what the IRGC command described as its largest wave of combat operations since the war began. Brent crude reacted to this resumption of daily fighting by climbing above the key threshold of $100 a barrel.
Iran's Oman Deal Unravels Under US Pressure
Another shift in the region's fragile balance of power concerns Oman. The Sultanate, which sits on the opposite shore of the Strait of Hormuz, had been on the verge of an agreement with the Islamic Republic to jointly collect fees for the navigation and maintenance of tankers passing through one of the world's most important waterways.
As recently as 26 August, the IRGC claimed to have reached an agreement with Oman on how revenue from the Strait would be shared.
A senior regional official, quoted anonymously by the New York Post in early September, said Oman had since backed away from the arrangement, though Muscat has not confirmed this publicly.
Although this has not been officially confirmed, it is plausible that Oman acted to avoid the wrath of US President Donald Trump, who had already threatened to "bomb" the sultanate if it "stood in the way" of US operations, well before Tehran's claims of a finalized deal.
Washington Reins In Its Allies as Israel Eyes Turkey
Oman's retreat fits into a broader pattern in US policy toward the region. Washington is not simply discouraging Iran's neighbors from cooperating with Tehran – it also appears determined to keep as much control as possible over the pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic itself.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of the Kurds. Officials familiar with the matter told the BBC that the Pentagon has informed the Kurdistan regional government it will not extend the existing security assistance memorandum beyond 30 September 2026. The Peshmerga, the region's official security force, received around $61m in funding for the 2026 fiscal year. Officials said the decision reflects a changed fight against ISIS, with the funds to be redirected elsewhere.
Iraqi Kurdistan had been seen as a potential staging ground for opening another front against Iran, an effort the Central Intelligence Agency was reportedly pursuing as early as March. A recent BBC report found that some Kurdish fighters had indeed been preparing for such a possibility.
Israel's Mossad went further, launching a training operation codenamed "Puss in Boots" that aimed to arm Kurdish fighters for deployment into Iran. Washington ultimately shut the plan down, according to Israel's Channel 13.
The pattern that emerges is one of contradiction: even as US forces step up operations against Tehran, Washington is reining in parallel initiatives pursued by its allies.
Recent statements from Israeli government ministers suggest a similar calculation is under way in Jerusalem – a preference for leaving the next phase of the confrontation with Iran largely to Washington, while Israel's own military and intelligence apparatus refocuses on what Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli has called the Muslim Brotherhood alliance: a bloc comprising Turkey, Qatar and Syria.
Turkey, in particular, has long been a thorn in the side of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, not least since Ankara began extending protection to the militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Israel's pivot toward Turkey as its principal regional rival is also driving a search for new allies. Israel signed a major air defense agreement with Greece: the Achilles Shield project, worth €3.1bn ($3.6bn), is intended to increase interoperability between the Patriot systems and the new Israeli Spyder systems from the defense contractor Rafael.
Turkey, for its part, is far from isolated. Any calculation involving a potential confrontation with NATO's second-largest army has just become considerably more complicated, after Ankara joined a new defense alliance of its own.
