Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps released a video of what they say were missiles launched by their naval forces in retaliation of US strikes. US-Iran tensions have been escalating in the Strait of Hormuz leading to its closure and exchange of strikes between US and Iran.
Published On 12 Jul 202612 Jul 2026
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The United States and Iran have traded attacks for a second day, straining their fragile ceasefire further after US President Donald Trump said the truce was “over”.
The US military said late on Wednesday that the attacks were aimed at Iran’s “ability to threaten the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”.
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The US struck approximately 90 military targets, including missile and drone storage as well as logistics sites along Iran’s coastline, said the Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the US attacks “retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!”
The latest attacks come a day after the US said it hit more than 80 targets in Iran in response to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday it carried out attacks on “key infrastructure and facilities” at bases used by the US military in Arifjan and Ali Al Salem in Kuwait, and Juffair and Sheikh Isa in Bahrain in response to the latest US bombardment.
The Iranian army later said its forces targeted a Patriot missile system in Kuwait, a satellite antenna in Qatar and US military fuel depots in Bahrain.
Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence said it was intercepting missiles and drones, while Qatar issued an “elevated security threat” alert.
The renewed fighting threatens to undermine a memorandum of understanding (MoU) the two sides agreed last month to extend an April ceasefire and gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.
The attacks come a day after Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was “over” and criticised the Iranian leadership. However, he left the door open to more talks and suggested that any strikes would end quickly.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One as he travelled back to the US after attending the NATO summit in Turkiye, Trump said the Iranian side had “called a little while ago” and that they wanted “to make a deal so badly”.
US strikes hit a railway bridge in Iran’s northeast, according to several official media, and the news agency IRNA reported strikes on a military base in coastal Bushehr, which hosts the nation’s only civilian nuclear power plant.
The Iranian railway (IRIR) said the train service on the Tehran-Mashhad line had been temporarily suspended as a result.
It said technical teams were on site to repair the damaged section so that the rail service could resume as soon as possible, adding that buses had been arranged to transport affected passengers.
Warplanes hovered over Iran’s Kish Island, and explosions rocked the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Konarak and Chabahar, part of which lost electricity, IRNA reported.
At least three people were killed in an attack on the outskirts of Ahvaz, capital of the southwestern province of Khuzestan, IRNA reported, citing the deputy governor of the region.
At least one firefighter was killed in an attack on an airport facility in Iranshahr, IRNA reported.
Iran’s Health Ministry said at least 14 people were killed and 78 others injured over the past two days.
In mid-June, the US and Iran signed an MoU to extend their ceasefire. It also led to the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran and the gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The MoU came following mediation by Pakistan and Qatar, which served as a launch point for 60 days of talks on more intractable issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, the administration of the Strait of Hormuz and access to billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds.
Since US-Israeli strikes triggered war in February, Tehran has effectively blocked the strait, threatening to hit vessels that deviate from its authorised route.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas said the US and Iran are “stuck in an equation – almost a deadlock” over the Strait of Hormuz.
“For the Americans, they say that Iran will not have control over the Strait of Hormuz. For the Iranians, control of the strait is indispensable.”
He said Iran sees control over the strait as the “ultimate deterrent, and if it gives that up, then it loses its negotiating position” with the US.
The US hopes that by targeting infrastructure that affects Iran’s ability to control the strait, including maritime traffic control centres, it will be forced to “return to the MoU”, Scott Uehlinger, a former senior CIA officer, told Al Jazeera.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called “on all parties to exercise maximum restraint”, as did Pakistan.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a phone call on Thursday that Iran and the US should commit to diplomacy.
Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the foreign minister, said Washington and Tehran should implement the MoU to end the war.
Iran said the two officials had spoken over the phone and “underscored the importance of using diplomatic means to resolve regional issues”.
July 9 (UPI) — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said early Thursday that it has launched attacks targeting U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, hours after U.S. Central Command announced the completion of its attacks against Iran.
The tit-for-tat strikes follow President Donald Trump a day prior saying the cease-fire agreement between Washington and Tehran was all but over, and threatened the return to all-out war in the Middle East.
Fighting had simmered between the two sides following last month’s agreement to conditions that could lead to an end of the war, but the Strait of Hormuz has proved a sticking point. The Trump administration is demanding a return to freedom of navigation through the chokepoint; Iran is seeking to maintain control over the vita energy transit route.
As negotiations were stalling, three commercial vessels were struck while transiting the strait, resulting in the United States attacking Iran early Wednesday, kicking off the continuing retaliatory strikes as Iran appears unrelenting in its oversight of the Strait of Hormuz.
“America still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free. Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you’ll get hit,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a social media statement early Thursday.
“Don’t flail around pointlessly, or you’ll sink ever deeper: the Strait of Hormuz will only open with ‘Iranian arrangements,’ not American threats.”
The IRGC said it had not only attacked but “smashed important infrastructure and facilities” at Arifjan and Ali Al Salem bases in Kuwait and Juffair and Sheikh Isa bases in Bahrain.
State-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported that Iran early Tuesday was attacking U.S. bases from Bushehr city, stating the United States had targeted those assets hours earlier.
The state broadcaster also claimed the U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain was also hit.
The extent of potential damage was not immediately clear, but both Kuwait and Bahrain confirmed incoming attacks.
The elite military unit in charge of protecting the Islamic regime warned that the United States that “should it repeat its aggression, our crushing responses will expand to other American bases in the region,” it said.
The attack came as the U.S. Central Command announced that it had completed strikes against Iran late Wednesday.
CENTCOM said late Wednesday that it had completed strikes against about 90 Iranian military targets, including air defense systems and coastal surveillance assets, were hit. The announced follower an earlier round of U.S. attacks overnight Tuesday that struck about 80 targets in Iran.
July 7 (UPI) — The U.S. military said late Tuesday that it struck dozens of targets in Iran in response to Iran attacking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The attacks were “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway,” U.S. Central Command said in a social media post. “Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous and a clear violation of the cease-fire.”
It announced the end of the offensive hours later, saying more than 80 targets were hit with precision munitions, including air defense systems, command-and-control networks, coastal radar sites and more than 60 small boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used to attack commercial vessels transiting the strait.
“The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the cease-fire and undermines freedom of navigation,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
“CENTCOM forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed by.”
The attack comes amid seemingly stalled negotiations between Iran and the United States on implementing a previously agreed to memorandum of understanding that could pave the way to ending the war.
The Strait of Hormuz, however, has been a sticking point. Washington is seeking freedom of navigation, while Iran is attempting to hold onto control of the important energy shipping route that it seized in late February with a military blockade in response to the U.S.-Israel attack that started the war.
After the three commercial vessels were struck in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States also reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales in retaliation for the attacks. The Treasury Department revoked waivers allowing Iran to sell oil and petrochemicals, CBS News reported.
Iran said the sanctions were “in clear violation” of the memorandum of understanding to end the conflict between Iran and the United States that was signed in June. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it “holds the U.S. government responsible for this breach of commitment,” CNN reported.
The ministry said the United States “has repeatedly committed both minor and major violations of various provisions of the” agreement over the past 20 days.
Following the completion of the U.S. strikes, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the Trump administration of committing “major MOU violations,” including its adjustments in the strait, making threats, reinstating sanctions and attacking Iran.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” he said in an online statement.
“It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
Iranian state media earlier reported explosions in Bandar Abbas and Sirik. Iran had previously warned the United States and Israel not to launch any strikes during the funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by U.S. attacks in February. The funeral is expected to last throughout this week.
The earlier strikes by Iran were on tankers that were allegedly trying to travel the strait by a route Iran has warned against, CBS News reported. While Iran did not claim the attacks, state media said at least one ship ignored warnings.
U.S. President Donald Trump is in Ankara, Turkey, for a NATO summit, during which attendees were expected to discuss the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran, Iran – The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed last week between Iran and the United States appears to be in jeopardy after a second day of military strikes, as well as the a framework agreement that entrenches Israeli forces on Lebanese soil.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday released video showing the launch of ballistic missiles overnight, with a message written on them in English and Persian saying US President Donald Trump was insisting on a “defeated war”.
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The IRGC said it had fired missiles and drones towards the US Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait and the US Fifth Naval Fleet in Bahrain in retaliation for a second day of US strikes. It threatened more attacks if the deal is violated again by the “deceitful” US, which, along with Israel launched air attacks across Iran on February 28.
The exchanges of fire come after the US coordinated the transit of vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz in cooperation with Oman and the International Maritime Organization.
Many ships were being directed through Oman’s waters, which prompted the IRGC to hit a container ship and a tanker with explosive-laden drones in an attempt to force traffic to pass through Iranian waters instead.
Speaking to reporters in neighbouring Iraq on Sunday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran will exercise sole management and oversight of the critical waterway for the next 30 days before allowing full traffic to resume.
He also emphasised the first clause of the June 17 MoU, which says military operations must immediately and permanently end on all fronts, including Lebanon, and urged Washington to exert pressure on Israel to stop attacking southern Lebanon.
The governments of Israel and Lebanon reached a US-brokered framework deal on Friday that allows Israeli forces to remain in southern Lebanon, until Tehran-backed Hezbollah is fully disarmed. That appears to contradict the MoU signed with Iran.
Hezbollah swiftly rejected the agreement, calling it “humiliating, shameful and a surrender” of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, said she expected the Lebanon issue to negatively impact the MoU because Hezbollah was not on board and the Lebanese government’s previous ceasefire deals with Israel have been repeatedly violated.
She also told Al Jazeera that Iran has found tremendous leverage with the Strait of Hormuz, treating it as a “golden card”, as the disruption to oil exports has heavily impacted markets and made the war unpopular among many, including in the US.
“They are using that leverage to the max and not going back to the status before the war, pretending like no war happened,” she said, adding that Iranian authorities and the IRGC have sought to centre themselves in the process of coordinating transit through the strait.
“They’re saying they want traffic to go through in coordination with them, and I think they will be able to exert that kind of power,” she said.
On Saturday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei released an image of their first publicised trilateral meeting since the start of the war more than four months ago.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen or heard from since succeeding his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli attack on the first day of the war. But a new written text message attributed to him on Sunday said: “What is certain is that the criminals must be seized by the collar and made to face the punishment for their criminal acts”.
Supporters of the Islamic Republic cheered on the latest IRGC attacks against US interests as they continued demonstrating on the streets overnight into Sunday as hardline politicians and analysts called for further attacks until Iran gets better concessions.
On the state-linked talk show, Tamam Rokh, political analysts said Tehran should significantly strengthen its ties with Moscow and Beijing.
“We could do many things with help from Russia and China to damage US strategic equipment in the region like vessels, refuelling aircraft and electronic warfare,” pro-state analyst Ali Samadzadeh said on the programme on Saturday.
“There was no movement in Tehran to tie Beijing and Moscow to the war, and this major flaw exists in the form of the negotiations and the text of the MoU as well,” he said.
More than 60 hardline legislators on Sunday postponed plans to protest against the closure of parliament since the start of the war after its presiding board said it would meet to reconvene the assembly, following Ali Khamenei’s burial next month.
Many others say demands for extracting major concessions from the US and Israel do not correspond with the reality of the situation after months of war.
“In terms of military power, we couldn’t do anything about the US blockade and we didn’t think the crisis would get so serious,” pro-state commentator Vahid Ashtari told crowds at a street event in Tehran.
“I think a type of blind idealism has emerged that believes we are on top and at the peak, so we shouldn’t make a deal. But there are facts on the ground. We have some missiles and drones to carry out an asymmetric defence, but we have no fighter jets to fly to the US and hit Trump. Not only could we not avenge [Khamenei], we could not avenge Haj Qassem either,” he added, in reference to General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the US in 2020.
After two nights of attacks, Iran’s financial markets also reacted poorly, with the national currency losing gains since the signing of the MoU to trade at about 1.7 million rials against the dollar in Tehran’s open market on Sunday.
The main index of the Tehran Stock Exchange also lost more than 100,000 points to stand at just over five million points at the end of trading on Sunday, the second day of the working week in Iran.
Vahid, a 37-year-old mechanic who also deals in car parts in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, told Al Jazeera that while the market has marginally improved since the signing of the deal with the US, it is still treading on thin ice.
He said parts for foreign cars are becoming harder to find, while prices have been rising rapidly for both domestic and foreign vehicle parts.
“I think the war will start again over the coming months and some in the bazaar think the same,” he said.
The US has struck Iran for the first time since the two sides reached a Memorandum of Understanding on June 17. The US says it hit Iranian military sites amid claims Iran’s forces attacked a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
Published On 27 Jun 202627 Jun 2026
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The US has struck Iranian missile and drone storage sites in retaliation for what it says was an Iranian attack on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The tit-for-tat has raised doubts about the stability of the US-Iran agreement, as Kimberly Halkett reports.
Published On 27 Jun 202627 Jun 2026
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned commercial vessels to only use routes through the Strait of Hormuz approved by Tehran, reopening a point of friction in fragile negotiations between the United States and Iran over the future of the strategic waterway.
The warning came after Oman announced a new shipping transit route through the strait on Wednesday, saying it had coordinated the route with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as maritime traffic slowly resumes following weeks of disruption.
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The dispute remains one of the unresolved issues after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the United States and Iran last week, which largely halted hostilities in the four-month US-Israel war on Iran and which launched a 60-day negotiation process aimed at reaching a broader peace agreement.
The MoU, which includes the reopening of the strait, followed months of severe disruption to shipping after Iran effectively closed it, and the US imposed a corresponding naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Both Washington and Tehran have declared the strait open to commercial shipping, but questions remain over whether Iran will seek greater control over vessel movements, whether it will impose transit or service fees on ships using the strait following the 60-day negotiating period, and whether disagreements over the waterway could derail efforts to reach a permanent agreement altogether.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically significant waterways, with around one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies normally being shipped through the narrow passage linking the Gulf to the Arabian Sea.
Bordered by Iran to the north and Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the south, the strait is only about 50km (31 miles) wide at its entrance and exit, narrowing to about 33km (21 miles) at its tightest point. Despite its width, it is deep enough to accommodate the world’s largest oil tankers.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, about 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products transited the strait each day in 2025, representing hundreds of billions of dollars in annual energy trade.
The route is used not only by Iran but also by Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is also vital for global fertiliser exports, with roughly one-third of international fertiliser trade normally passing through the strait.
Because disruptions to shipping there rapidly push up global energy prices and destabilise US markets, control of the waterway has become one of Iran’s strongest sources of strategic leverage in its conflict with the US.
The IRGC says Oman and the IMO announced the new shipping corridor without consulting Tehran. “Certain authorities have announced a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz without prior notification to or coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The proposed route is unacceptable and poses serious safety risks,” the force said.
“The only authorised transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz are those designated by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” it said, adding that ships must maintain contact with the IRGC Navy while transiting the waterway.
Iran first issued its own map of acceptable routes through the strait in April, showing that ships should pass much closer to the Iranian coast than they had previously.
The IRGC’s warning came after a Liberian oil tanker passed through the strait on Thursday using a route much closer to Oman’s coastline.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, said the IRGC appeared frustrated because the Omani route partially bypasses Iran’s direct control over shipping.
“The control of the Strait of Hormuz has been a huge leverage for Iran to put pressure on its adversaries and the global economy since the beginning of the war,” Serdar said.
Oman defended the corridor route it had announced, saying it was intended to restore safe navigation while complying with international law. Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said Oman remained committed to ensuring freedom of navigation through the waterway and stressed that “future arrangements related to the strait do not involve imposing any transit fees”.
In the MoU signed last week, Iran agreed that it would “make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge, for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa”.
While the agreement states that “the traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start”, it also acknowledges that demining operations will be required before normal shipping routes can fully resume, stating that “demining by the Islamic Republic of Iran will be instated within 30 days”. It also provides for discussions between Iran, Oman and other Gulf states on future arrangements for managing the waterway.
However, the memorandum does not specify what will happen after the initial 60-day period. Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, said the temporary rerouting of vessels had always been expected because of the mine-clearing operations outlined in the agreement.
“We always knew that if there was a deal, there would be several weeks of mine-clearing operations in the international shipping lane running through the middle of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
“During that period, vessels would have to transit through Iranian and Omani territorial waters instead.”
However, Vaez said the latest announcement by Iran was unexpected. “The important thing now is that the Iranians do not start taking fees or other tolls,” he said, “because that is not provided for in the memorandum of understanding.”
Asked whether the IRGC’s position differed from that of Iran’s government, Vaez said: “There is no distinction between the IRGC and the state. They are effectively one and the same. The IRGC is calling the shots.”
International law generally protects the right of transit through international straits, including Hormuz, making it difficult for coastal states to impose unilateral transit fees on vessels simply passing through international shipping lanes, even where they are within territorial waters.
Last week, Iran announced it would waive planned fees through the strait for 60 days while talks with the US continue in Switzerland, suggesting charges may be introduced once the negotiating period expires.
Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has signalled that Tehran views the post-war arrangement as fundamentally different from the status quo that existed before the conflict.
“Hormuz will never return” to its prewar status, Ghalibaf said.
The suggestion that Iran could charge fees was dismissed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week. Speaking at the start of a regional tour in the United Arab Emirates, he said: “It’s an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway.”
Rubio added that he believed “all the countries in this region would agree”.
Speaking in Manama, Bahrain, after meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – a bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – on Thursday, Rubio also told reporters: “Iranians are saying one thing, but then something else is actually happening.
“It’s now obvious to us that … the Iranian system is going to produce all sorts of maximalist rhetoric. What we’re interested in is not their press conferences. What we’re interested in is whether or not ships are moving. If ships are moving as they should be moving, then that’s what we’re going to judge.
“If, on the other hand, this rhetoric is backed up by actual ships being threatened and ships are not moving, then that’s a violation of the agreement, and we’re going to have a problem with it.”
Rubio claimed there is no regional support for Iranian transit fees, saying, “There is zero support among Gulf countries for any sort of toll or fees charged for the use of international waters … that isn’t going to happen.”
His comments came after UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said that new “geopolitical facts” could not be imposed on the Arab Gulf states as a result of what he described as the “treacherous aggression against them”.
Some commercial shipping through the strait has resumed, although traffic remains well below normal levels. Before the conflict, between 120 and 140 vessels typically transited the strait each day.
According to shipping analytics company Kpler, confirmed crossings rose to 70 vessels on Wednesday as demining progressed and more operators began using the Omani route.
“The US-Iran MoU framework and apparent lifting of the US blockade appear to have supported a short-term confidence boost, although IRGC warnings against use of the Omani route could create a new source of contention,” Kpler reported.
The company added that incomplete demining, continued “dark” routing by some vessels – when ships limit or switch off their tracking transponders – and unresolved questions over inspections, sanctions and future governance meant shipping had not yet returned to prewar conditions.
This comes as oil prices drop to the lowest level since before the Iran war, with Brent crude, the global benchmark, falling to a low of $72.24 a barrel on Thursday. This remains above the prewar price of $66, however.
The chart below shows how shipping through the strait before the war compares to its status in recent weeks:
The future administration of the Strait of Hormuz is only one of several issues still to be resolved before negotiators hope to reach a comprehensive agreement within 60 days, with another major sticking point being Iran’s nuclear programme.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi has said the agreement explicitly provides for international monitoring of Iran’s nuclear activities.
However, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, has said inspectors’ access to nuclear sites damaged during the conflict will only be considered as part of a final agreement.
Questions also remain over the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, the sequencing of sanctions relief and the release of frozen Iranian assets, while regional tensions continue to pose additional risks.
Israeli forces remain deployed in parts of southern Lebanon occupied during the conflict, according to a Lebanese military source, while Israeli strikes have continued, despite the MoU explicitly calling for “a permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon”.
Vaez said visible progress would be essential if negotiations are to survive, noting, “Both sides have to see progress, whether that’s greater access for UN nuclear inspectors, sanctions relief, or resolving the issue of Iran’s uranium stockpile.”
He cautioned against viewing the interim agreement as a series of smaller deals. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” Vaez said.
“They [the Iranians] are determined to reach a comprehensive agreement within 60 days. That’s a very ambitious timetable, but there has to be visible momentum or the process risks falling apart.”
However, Vaez said both Washington and Tehran have strong economic incentives to bring about a lasting peace. “The situation in the Strait had become one of mutually assured economic destruction,” he said.
“The United States was facing rising energy and oil prices ahead of the midterm elections … At the same time, Iran was already in a deep economic hole before this conflict began. The war only made that worse.
“It became a lose-lose dynamic, and both sides needed a way out.”
June 10 (UPI) — Iran said it launched strikes against U.S. military bases in neighboring countries in and around the Persian Gulf early Wednesday in retaliation for American “aggression” after U.S. forces conducted strikes on targets in southern Iran.
Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s central command, said in a statement published by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency that the “brave Army of the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” carried out a “powerful assault” on U.S. military assets in the region.
“The criminal U.S. military should know that if aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran is repeated, even more severe and widespread attacks will be carried out against the designated target bank in the region, it added.
The statement was accompanied by a photo showing six ground-launched ballistic missiles blasting off from an undisclosed desert location but it was unclear if it was of Wednesday’s strikes as the image was undated and uncredited.
The IRGC claimed missiles were fired at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti airbase, where U.S. F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft operate out of, and that facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain were also attacked.
It said that the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain was targeted with drones.
The attacks had yet to be verified but Jordan’s armed forces said they downed five Iranian missiles targeting the country’s al-Azraq district, 60 miles east of the capital, Amman.
The Kuwaiti military, in a post on X just after 3 a.m. local time, said its air defenses were “currently intercepting hostile aerial targets.”
Bahrain’s interior ministry issued multiple alerts around the same time, advising residents that the air-raid siren had been sounded, urging them not to panic and to move to the nearest safe place to shelter immediately.
No deaths or injuries were reported.
The escalation came almost immediately after U.S. Central Command announced that it had completed “self-defense strikes” ordered by President Donald Trump in response to the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter earlier Tuesday.
CENTCOM said in a statement early Wednesday that U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz “with precision munitions’ in an approximately four-hour-long operation.
“The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional water,” said CENTCOM.
The ratcheting up of tensions prompted Beijing and Moscow to call on both sides to apply the brakes.
“China is deeply concerned over the latest developments regarding Iran. Relevant parties need to remain calm, exercise restraint, stop exacerbating confrontation and escalating tensions, take concrete actions to ease the situation, stick to political and diplomatic means for resolving disputes, and work for an early realization of a comprehensive and lasting cease-fire,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday.
In a post on X, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Moscow was very worried about what she called “the new spiral of U.S.-Iran armed confrontation.”
She called on both parties to show restraint and halt military attacks immediately, adding that Russia stood ready to assist in finding and implementing “mutually acceptable negotiated solutions” to the crisis.
EXPLAINER
Tensions have escalated between Iran and Israel while ongoing diplomatic efforts have failed to yield a lasting peace deal.
Published On 8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026
Iran and Israel were on Monday locked in tit-for-tat missile attacks, as the fragile ceasefire that has held in place since April 8 appeared closer to collapse than at any point in the past seven weeks.
These escalating hostilities between Iran and Israel come as the United States-Israel war on Iran enters its 101st day on Monday.
Here is what is happening:
1 of 2 | A woman holds a photo depicting late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as people gather during a rally following Iran’s attack on Israel in Tehran on Sunday. The Israeli military confirmed it struck “military targets” in western and central Iran early Monday local time. Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
June 7 (UPI) — The Israel Defense Forces confirmed it struck military targets in western and central Iran on Monday in retaliation for a wave of airstrikes launched against the Jewish state by Tehran hours earlier.
“A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran. Details to follow,” the IDF said in a post on Telegram as a fragile cease-fire in the Iran War continued to unravel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meanwhile, confirmed the attack, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.
“The Zionist enemy has attacked targets on our country’s soil using air-launched ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said.
Official Iranian media also said residents in neighboring Iraq heard explosions in parts in the capital Baghdad while unidentified objects were seen over the Iraqi city and in Beirut.
The strikes against Iran came just hours after the Islamic regime lobbed missiles into northern Israel for the first time since the beginning of the cease-fire, which came into effect on April 8.
Tehran said those strikes were in response to Israeli bombings targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Iranian missiles, which the IDF said had been intercepted, were the first direct attack on Israel since the cease-fire.
The attacks follow an announcement on Sunday that Israel had launched strikes at alleged Hezbollah targets in Beirut — attacks which it has continued throughout the cease-fire — and some of which have been in suburban neighborhoods.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who reportedly has been briefed on Iran’s actions, told Iran “that’s enough, get back to the table” for peace negotiations, Fox News reported.
“The Israeli army must stop its attacks on southern Lebanon and the suburbs, and if it expands its attacks to that region or responds to Iran’s action, it will face more devastating and regrettable blows,” General Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya command, said in a statement.
Trump has reportedly also told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold back after the Iranian strikes, which Netanyahu agreed to on the condition that Hezbollah — which is funded by the Iranian regime — not launch strikes into northern Israel from Lebanon.
The United States and Iran have been negotiating an end the war for more than a month, as a cease-fire has mostly held but the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, preventing the shipment of oil and other products from the Middle East.
Ross Harrison, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, says that Iran’s renewed missile strikes on Israel aim to restore deterrence without reigniting full scale war.
Published On 7 Jun 20267 Jun 2026
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Israel’s supreme court annuls a government ban on the International Committee of the Red Cross visiting Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Published On 5 Jun 20265 Jun 2026
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All flights in and out of Kuwait Airport were suspended until further notice Wednesday after it was hit by Iranian missiles and drones, injuring several people and causing extensive damage amid an escalation in the U.S.-Iran war after the flared up again at the weekend. File photo by Stringer/EPA
June 3 (UPI) — Kuwait closed its main airport in Kuwait City on Wednesday after Iranian missile and drone strikes injured several people and caused “significant damage” to its main terminal building as renewed hostilities between the Iran and the United States escalated.
The airport activated its emergency plan, suspending all flights indefinitely after its Terminal 1 building was the target of “Iranian aggression, resulting in significant damage to several airport facilities, in addition to recording human injuries,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in an update on X.
DGCA spokesman Abdullah Al-Rajhi said it has been decided to suspend air traffic and divert flights to alternative airports until further notice pending the completion of repair work to enable the airport to resume operations, saying that inspection and comprehensive assessment by technical and specialized teams was already underway.
Kuwait International Airport only fully reopened on Monday after being closed on and off since the start of the war on Feb. 28.
The attack came hours after Iran and the United States and Iran exchanged fire across the region Tuesday with Iranian forces attacking its Gulf neighbors and the American military striking a vessel attempting to evade its naval blockade and launching “self-defense” strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island.
The airport was hit in the early hours, shortly after U.S. Central Command said a series of Iranian missiles and drones directed at its regional neighbors had either failed to reach their targets or been repelled by U.S. forces, including two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait that “fell short or broke apart enroute,” and three others launched at Bahrain that were intercepted by U.S. and Bahrain air defense forces.
CENTCOM said later that an additional wave of Iranian drones targeting U.S. forces in Kuwait was downed by air defenses with no American personnel or assets harmed and dismissed as fake Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims they struck U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and a U.S. air base in the region with missiles and drones.
No U.S. personnel were harmed. CENTCOM forces remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire.
Moments earlier, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces shot down three one-way attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters. American forces also conducted self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.
The American military also downed three attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that CENTCOM said were sailing legitimately in regional waters and struck on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.
“No U.S. personnel were harmed. CENTCOM forces remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing cease-fire,” it said.
CENTCOM also released footage of a U.S. warplane firing a Hellcat missile at an empty Iran-bound oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz that it said ignored warnings to stop.
“U.S. Central Command enforced blockade measures against Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie as it transited international waters toward Kharg Island. The ship’s crew ignored repeated warnings, failing to comply with directions from U.S. forces multiple times over a 24-hour period. A U.S. aircraft ultimately disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship’s engine room, preventing the tanker from reaching Iran,” CENTCOM said.
EXPLAINER
While a peace deal between the US and Iran remains elusive, Israel has deepened its offensive into southern Lebanon.
Published On 1 Jun 20261 Jun 2026
The United States military says it has struck Iranian military sites, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has targeted a US base in response, the latest in a series of exchanges as negotiations to end the three-month US-Israel war on Iran are conducted.
US President Donald Trump also on Monday described Iran as eager to reach an agreement.
“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the USA and those that are with us,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
Here is the latest on the US-Iran negotiations as both sides announced on day 94 of the war on Iran that they traded attacks:
Iran has reasserted its control over the Strait of Hormuz, warning that foreign commercial and military vessels will be targeted, if they do not comply with regulations governing passage through the strategic waterway.
The announcement on Saturday came after the United States signalled that President Donald Trump was close to a decision on a potential deal with Iran, but Tehran denied an agreement had been reached.
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“The management of the Strait of Hormuz is exercised with full authority by the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the operational headquarters of Iran’s armed forces, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said in a statement reported by Iranian media on Saturday.
“All ships, commercial vessels, and tankers are only required to travel through the designated routes and obtain permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] Navy. Any violation of these regulations will seriously jeopardise the security of their traffic,” it added.
Iran also issued a warning to foreign military forces operating in the area, saying any attempt to interfere with maritime management or shipping movements would trigger a response.
On Friday, Trump met with advisers in the White House Situation Room and said a “final determination” on a possible deal with Iran would soon be made. But no statement followed the meeting.
US sources had told the AFP news agency the deal was waiting on Trump’s sign-off, but he made no decision after Friday’s meeting.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Friday that while messages continue to be exchanged “no final agreement has been reached” on a deal with the US.
While attending a defence summit in Singapore on Saturday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that Washington was “more than capable” of restarting the war if a satisfactory deal is not reached.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) posted on social media that American forces “remain present and vigilant across the region”.
The efforts to reach a deal were thrown into question this week by US strikes on the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, countered by retaliatory Iranian fire.
Iran’s IRNA state news agency said air defences shot down a drone “belonging to the US-Zionist aggressor enemy” on Saturday, citing a statement from the army.
Trump said his priorities in any deal include Iran agreeing to never develop nuclear weapons, and the reopening of the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
“President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his red lines,” a White House official told AFP, adding: “Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”
Also on Saturday, Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a social media post that Trump was “betraying diplomacy for the third time” by continuing the US naval blockade in the strait, and making what he described as “excessive demands in negotiations”.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump said Tehran would remove mines from the strait and end its closure of the waterway with “no tolls”, while the US would lift its blockade.
Both countries would coordinate on removing and destroying Iran’s enriched uranium, he said, adding that “no money will be exchanged, until further notice”.
Iran’s Fars news agency, however, cited sources as saying Tehran was demanding “the immediate release of $12bn” in frozen assets before moving to the next phase of negotiations.
On the toll-free reopening of Hormuz, the sources said “no such clause appears in the text of the agreement”, while Trump’s comment on destroying Iran’s nuclear material “is fundamentally baseless”.
Iran’s ISNA news agency cited legislator Alireza Salimi as saying a plan “to implement Iran’s management and sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz will soon be approved by parliament”.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency said the US blockade remains in place, and its ships “are receiving warnings from CENTCOM to stop and not cross the blockade line”.
The United States has carried out strikes near Bandar Abbas, the second attack in less than a week on Iran’s strategically important port city, escalating tensions around the Strait of Hormuz despite a fragile ceasefire that has been in place between Washington and Tehran since April 8.
Reuters and The Associated Press, quoting unnamed US officials, reported that US forces shot down four Iranian drones and struck a ground control station for drones on Wednesday in Bandar Abbas.
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The strikes followed explosions in Bandar Abbas on Tuesday. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Washington of violating the ceasefire through “aggressive acts” in Hormozgan province, where the port city is located.
The semiofficial Iranian news agency Tasnim also reported that Iranian forces had fired on an “American airbase” in the region in response to a US attack near Bandar Abbas.
The escalation came after US President Donald Trump said during a cabinet meeting in Washington, DC, on Wednesday that “nobody’s going to control” the Strait of Hormuz as he spoke about ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Bandar Abbas, home to key Iranian naval forces, occupies one of the most strategically sensitive positions in the Gulf. Its location on the Strait of Hormuz has made it central to both Iran’s military position and the wider confrontation with the US. Here is what we know:
Bandar Abbas lies on Iran’s southern coast, on the northern side of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.
The city, which had a population of more than 526,000 people at the time of Iran’s 2016 census, sits roughly 60km to 70km (35 to 45 miles) north of the strait’s narrowest point.
Its position gives Iran oversight of one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. About one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies transit through the Strait of Hormuz during peacetime.
Since the ceasefire was announced on April 8, Iran has continued to control shipping through the Strait of Hormuz while US forces have imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.
Bandar Abbas is the headquarters of both Iran’s conventional navy and the naval arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The conventional navy has used it as its base since 1977 when Iran moved much of its fleet from Khorramshahr at the western edge of Iran’s Gulf coastline, to Bandar Abbas, transforming the city into the country’s main southern naval command centre.
According to the Middle East Institute, the IRGC navy later relocated its headquarters from Tehran to Bandar Abbas to improve operational control along the Strait of Hormuz.
Although Trump and Israeli officials claimed Iran’s naval capabilities have been heavily damaged in their recent attacks, Tehran still maintains a fleet of fast attack boats operated by the IRGC navy.
The vessels are designed for “swarm” tactics and are being used against commercial ships that do not have authorisation from Iran to sail through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. They were used recently against two Indian ships and two foreign container vessels, the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and the Liberian-flagged Epaminondas, which Iran said had not been given approval to transit the waterway.
The Strait of Hormuz is not just a military chokepoint but also an economic lifeline.
Analysts estimated that more than 90 percent of Iranian crude shipments transit through the strait.
That makes Bandar Abbas and nearby Gulf infrastructure critical to government revenues, including the trade networks that help Iran circumvent sanctions, particularly by exporting oil to China.
Samir Puri, a visiting lecturer in war studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera the ceasefire has not yet formally collapsed despite these latest exchanges of fire.
He described those incidents as “limited” compared with strikes carried out before April 8. These attacks can be characterised as “tit-for-tat military-to-military engagements rather than attacks on infrastructure or widespread destruction en masse”, he said.
“What the US military is attempting to do is explore whether it can physically deny the IRGC and Iran the ability to control the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
“Iran, of course, wants to show it cannot be denied that capability.”
Diplomatic and military operations are unfolding simultaneously as Iran and the US have exchanged a volley of proposals and counterproposals for peace since the ceasefire began.
“This is unfolding on parallel tracks. There is a military track and a negotiating track all unfolding at the same time,” Puri said. These limited strikes are, therefore, ultimately being launched as part of the negotiations, he said.
“The negotiators can only present the leverage they have from the field of battle. Is the US going to put itself into a position in which it can say to Iranian negotiators that they do not control the Strait of Hormuz? Because if you try to amass forces around Bandar Abbas and launch attacks from that coastal area, we can strike back.
“But Iran will not want to be pushed into that position and will want to say it retains the ability to strike shipping and US bases hosted by Gulf allies and partners. So that’s the duality that’s unfolding right now.”
Puri said both Washington and Tehran still appeared to have incentives to continue mediation but the two sides are approaching negotiations with very different objectives.
“Trump and the US administration want to impose a victor’s peace on Iran. Iran’s reading of the same script that they’re being handed is very different, and Iran probably wants to stretch out these negotiations for as long as possible without conceding.”
“So again, you end up in a situation that wars elsewhere have seen – negotiations without an endpoint or even the promise of an endpoint but still an incentive for both parties to participate, for now.”
May 28 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury announced late Wednesday that it has sanctioned an Iranian entity, newly created to oversee and manage the Strait of Hormuz, as the Trump administration seeks to force Tehran to relinquish control over the vital energy trade route.
The strait has been an issue of contention between the United States and Iran, which are locked in negotiations to end the war.
Iran restricted navigation of the strait after the United States and Israel attacked the country in late February, igniting the war. Washington responded by imposing a military blockade of Iran’s ports, cutting it off from maritime trade.
Since imposing the restrictions, Iran has been adamant about maintaining control of the route, through which about one-fifth of the world’s energy trade flows. The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened that there will be free navigation of the strait again, one way or another.
Earlier this month, Iran launched the Persian Gulf Strait Authority to manage the strait.
The Treasury sanctioned the PGSA on Wednesday, accusing it of being an attempt by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to monetize the international waterway.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the mechanism in a statement as the Iranian military’s “latest attempt to extort global maritime trade.”
Bessent said the Wednesday blacklisting was part of Economic Fury, the Treasury’s rebranding of President Donald Trump‘s maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and other trade measures from his first administration seeking to coerce a new nuclear weapons deal from Iran.
The United States has been tightening its financial vise on Iran since 2018 when Trump first imposed sanctions on Tehran after unilaterally withdrawing the United States from a multinational Obama-era nuclear accord aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon.
Trump reimposed the campaign following his return to the White House in early 2025. It was renamed following the start of the military operation Epic Fury that began Feb. 28.
Treasury officials said Wednesday that through the maximum pressure campaign, the Trump administration has denied Iran access to tens of billions of dollars’ worth of revenue.
The sanctions generally prohibit those named from accessing the U.S. financial system and bar U.S. persons and companies from doing business with them. They also expose foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for those sanctioned to potential secondary sanctions.
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, had over the weekend called on Bessent to sanction the PGSA, stating the United States “must ensure every actor enabling the terrorist Iranian regime is held accountable.”
“I support the use of existing authorities to impose sanctions on the PGSA, its officers and any foreign entity that pays, processes or facilitates tolls to Iran for passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said in a statement.
Iran has rejected the notion that it is running a toll. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has said that Iran charges fees to cover costs associated with navigational services and environmental protection measures.
May 28 (UPI) — The U.S. military attacked Iran, Tehran confirmed early Thursday, as Iran announced retaliatory strikes of its own.
Iran targeted a U.S. air base at about 4:50 a.m. local time in response to the U.S. military striking presumed Iranian military assets near Bandar Abbas Airport in southern Iran.
“This response is a serious warning so that the enemy knows aggression will not go unanswered, and that in the event of a repeat, our response will be more decisive and the responsibility and consequences will lie with the aggressor,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried by Iranian state media.
The air base targeted and whether it sustained damage were not known. The U.S. military has yet to comment.
The announcement came as the Kuwait Army said its air defenses were confronting “hostile missile and drone attacks.” While the United States maintains a significant military presence in Kuwait, it was not immediately clear whether those attacks were related to the U.S.-Iran exchange.
Explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas, Iranian state news agency Tasnim reported earlier Thursday.
Citing an unidentified military source, the news agency said the U.S. attack followed the Iranian Navy firing shots toward a U.S. oil tanker that had turned off its radar system and intended to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The oil tanker reportedly ended its attempt to transit the vital energy maritime trade route.
Iran has been enforcing has been restricting access through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war, permitting only certain vessels through. The United States responded with a military blockade of Iran’s ports, cutting it off from sea-based trade.
The two sides have been in talks since a fragile cease-fire was agreed to last month, with Thursday’s U.S. strikes on Iran the second time it has attacked the country so far this week.
On Monday, the U.S. military attacked southern Iran, describing the strikes as “self-defensive” in nature.
The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that it intends to secure free navigation of the Strait of Hormuz, one way or another, though it would prefer to do so through diplomacy.
Iran’s control of Hormuz is reportedly one of its conditions in negotiations on ending the war. In response to reports carried by Iranian state media that Iran and Oman, which border either side of the Strait of Hormuz, are in talks over control of the choke point, President Donald Trump said the transit route will be open to all countries and under no government’s control.
“It’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We’re going to watch over it. We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation that we’re having,” he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“And Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that. They’ll be fine.”
Iranian and US forces have continued to exchange strikes despite an April ceasefire, fuelling tensions across the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, while raising fears the fragile truce could unravel as mediation efforts continue in Doha.
On Monday, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out new strikes on southern Iran, targeting missile sites and boats allegedly attempting to place naval mines. It said the attacks had been carried out in “self-defence” to protect US troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.
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On Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had downed a US drone and fired at a jet and another drone that entered Iranian airspace, according to state media. Iran also said it retained the “legitimate and definite” right to respond to any violations of the ceasefire.
Since a temporary ceasefire was announced on April 8, Iran has continued to control shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies are shipped in peacetime, while US forces have enforced a corresponding blockade on Iranian ports. Negotiations for a long-term ceasefire are ongoing, but repeated military flare-ups in the meantime underscore the deep mistrust between the two sides, experts say, as Iran and the US jostle for leverage amid a back-and-forth of peace proposals from both sides.
Here is what has happened since the ceasefire:
The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, as negotiations between Washington and Tehran progressed via mediators, amid claims that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. While the US and Israel provided no evidence to support their allegation, Iran continued to deny. It responded with missiles and drones targeting Israel and US military and infrastructure assets in the Gulf region and the wider Middle East.
On April 8, following mediation by Pakistan, the two sides agreed to a two-week pause in fighting to allow for further negotiations. Delegations from both countries met in Islamabad on April 11 and 12, but failed to reach a broader agreement, with draft proposals exchanged through Pakistani mediators in an attempt to end the conflict. The ceasefire was extended to allow for more proposals to be exchanged.
At least 3,468 people – aged between eight months and 88 years – have been killed in US-Israeli attacks on Iran since February 28, according to its Ministry of Health. They included seven infants, 376 children and 496 women.
At least 26 Israelis have been killed and 7,791 wounded in Iranian attacks, while the US military has confirmed 13 combat-related deaths across the region. Dozens of people were also killed in the Gulf countries. Lebanon remains the worst hit in the region, where, despite a ceasefire, Israel continues to carry out attacks amid its ground invasion. More than 3,200 people have been killed, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
The ceasefire faced near-immediate strain when Kuwait said seven drones entered its airspace on April 10. It accused Iran and allied armed groups of the attacks.
Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it described as violations of its sovereignty and airspace. Separately, the US Department of State accused Iran-linked armed groups in Iraq of launching attacks from Iraqi territory. However, Iran denied any role in the attacks, saying it had not targeted any Gulf country since the ceasefire began.
Four days into the ceasefire – and following the collapse of direct talks in Islamabad – the US announced a naval blockade targeting maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports, after talks mediated by Pakistan collapsed. The US argued that Iran had benefitted from continuing to export oil, while the Strait of Hormuz was closed to nearly all other shipping.
The blockade formally came into effect the following day, although Washington said vessels travelling to non-Iranian ports would be allowed past.
Iran condemned the move as “illegal”, warning that ports in the Gulf region would not be safe if Iranian ports were threatened.
The blockade came after Iran tightened its control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, restricting some foreign ships while allowing passage to countries it viewed as friendly.
The International Maritime Organization has said no country has the right to block shipping in international transit straits.
On April 18, Iranian forces fired on two Indian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which it said did not have permission to pass.
Maritime tensions escalated further on April 20, when US forces seized an Iranian container ship near the Gulf in a move Iran described as an “act of piracy“. CENTCOM and US President Donald Trump said the vessel, the Iran-flagged Touska, had ignored orders to withdraw from its route through the Strait of Hormuz.
Days later, on April 22, the IRGC fired on three ships in the strait and seized two foreign container vessels, the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and the Liberian-flagged Epaminondas, saying they lacked authorisation to transit the waterway.
The incident came the day after Trump extended the ceasefire while maintaining the US naval blockade on Iranian ports.
On May 4, the United Arab Emirates accused Iran of launching missiles and drones at the country, triggering a fire at an oil refinery in Fujairah and wounding three Indian nationals.
The UAE said its air defences had intercepted 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran. Abu Dhabi condemned what it described as “unprovoked Iranian attacks” on civilian infrastructure.
The UAE said the attacks were the first on its territory since the ceasefire had commenced on April 8. The strikes came as Trump launched a new effort to escort stranded oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, much of which had remained closed since the war began.
Iran’s military warned commercial vessels against accepting US escorts and threatened to attack if they entered the strait. Trump abandoned the effort after one day.
On May 14, an Indian cargo ship transporting livestock from Africa to the UAE sank off the coast of Oman, while the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that “unauthorised personnel” boarded another vessel near Fujairah and redirected it towards Iran.
India condemned the attack, saying commercial shipping and civilian sailors continued to be targeted despite the ceasefire.
A drone strike has sparked a fire on the perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), raising new concerns over a potential new regional escalation amid a fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States.
Authorities in Abu Dhabi said the blaze broke out at an electrical generator outside the plant’s inner perimeter in the Al Dhafra region on Sunday. No injuries were reported, and officials said radiation levels remained normal. The UAE did not specifically blame Iran, but said the drones had been launched from the “western border”.
Saudi Arabia also said it intercepted three drones fired from Iraqi airspace. The Saudi defence ministry said it would take “necessary operational measures” in the event of any attempt to violate its sovereignty and security.
Diplomatic efforts to secure a broader peace agreement are continuing. Senior officials from Iran travelled to Qatar this week for negotiations aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran, with discussions reportedly focused on the release of frozen Iranian assets.
Iran is also seeking sanctions relief for its oil and petrochemical exports during a proposed 60-day period to hold talks about its nuclear programme. A further proposed 30-day timeframe would see the US lift its blockade of Iranian oil ports while Tehran restores commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran is also seeking guarantees related to a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel continues to strike and occupy towns and villages in the south of the country. Meanwhile, Trump is reportedly attempting to link the negotiations to efforts for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan to normalise ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords.
Analysts say any agreement remains politically sensitive, with deep distrust persisting as all sides seek leverage to secure a deal they can present domestically as a victory.
Tehran, Iran – “The fundamental principle is distrust towards America” – this is how senior lawmaker Abbas Moghtadaei described the situation to state television on Tuesday afternoon.
It came after an Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, returned to Tehran from Qatar amid efforts to reach an understanding with the United States on ending the nearly three-month-long war on the country.
Hours earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Washington of committing a “blatant violation” of the shaky ceasefire reached on April 8 by attacking the southern province of Hormozgan on Monday night. It added that the strikes validated the “deep suspicion” Iran harboured towards the US.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iranian armed forces fired back and shot down a US-made RQ-4 drone, using a domestically-made air defence system called Arash-e Kamangir – named after a hero in Persian mythology. State television aired footage of the remains of a downed drone.
The US military said it was hitting missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to lay sea mines in a “defensive” move, but IRGC commanders said they have the right to retaliate.
On Tuesday afternoon, a tanker reported an external explosion and fuel leak some 60 nautical miles (about 111 kilometres) east of Oman’s capital city Muscat, according to British maritime intelligence. Iranian officials did not comment on the incident.
The escalation comes as the two sides try to hammer out the final details of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoM) that could potentially facilitate increased transit through the Strait of Hormuz, which has largely frozen since the US and Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran on February 28.
The deal would also grant Iran access to some of its own overseas funds that have been frozen due to US sanctions and offer a pathway for a future agreement over the country’s nuclear programme.
Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at Sciences Po’s Center for International Research, said many in the Iranian leadership appear concerned that an agreement could simply provide operational pause, intelligence access or political cover before the US and Israel launch another round of large-scale attacks on the country.
“For the deal to be politically sellable internally, Tehran likely needs to frame it not as capitulation under military pressure but as a managed stabilisation that preserved core sovereign red lines,” she told Al Jazeera.
“That probably means maintaining some form of enrichment capability for now, avoiding immediate surrender of the stockpile, securing meaningful sanctions or asset relief, and preserving regional deterrence structures, at least formally outside the agreement.”
From relatively moderate Iranian politicians in the government to the most hardline military-security factions, all have pledged that the Islamic Republic will not accede to a deal that amounts to “surrender”.
President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television earlier this week that he wants to assure the international community “we are not after nuclear weapons, we are not after insecurity in the region”.
But Majid Mousavi, the influential aerospace commander of the IRGC, wrote in a post on X, in reference to former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “As our martyred imam said, negotiating with the enemy is pure loss.”
Mousavi said he would follow the orders of the country’s new supreme leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, who said in a message to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha on Tuesday, that “nations and territories of the region will no longer be the shield of American bases”. He also predicted that Israel would no longer exist in 15 years’ time, as foreshadowed by his slain father.
Ali Abdollahi, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters and a leading figure in the war, made a first public appearance on Monday to urge the Iranian armed forces to make the “defeat” of the enemy a priority.
“The Americans talk too much and keep changing their story in a moment. We’ve said many times that we will show on the battlefield what we are capable of,” he told state television on the sidelines of a ceremony in Tehran to commemorate Iranian leaders killed during the war.
In his first public message as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, released on Monday, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a top IRGC general, pledged, “there will be no retreat”.
IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi has also expressed readiness to resume military confrontations with the US if necessary.
Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said decision-makers in Tehran are not just concerned about a ‘bad deal’ but also one that could force Iran to give up key leverage in the event of future disputes.
“Hardliners are especially alarmed by any discussion involving Hormuz, sanctions sequencing or nuclear concessions because they increasingly view coercive leverage, especially maritime pressure, as Iran’s main post-war bargaining asset,” he told Al Jazeera. That is why the debate inside Tehran has shifted from ‘should we negotiate?’ to ‘what exactly are we giving up?” he told Al Jazeera.
For a deal to succeed, the Iranian leadership will need to believe that some sanctions relief will be tangible and fast, he added.
Iran will also seek to preserve enough of a deterrence mechanism and symbolic dignity to avoid looking defeated, and ensure that the agreement prevents another war from breaking out in the future.
But as it stands – and there is scant information on it – Vatanka said the emerging memorandum “looks less like a historic peace settlement and more like a ceasefire-management mechanism designed to buy time, reduce immediate war risks, reopen parts of Hormuz, and defer the hardest nuclear questions into later rounds”. This would mean lingering suspicion and uncertainty would persist.
Iranian state media pundits have also claimed that senior Iranian figures would be vulnerable to assassination if military operations resume.
“If the US, at any point during the current agreement talks, gains access to our supreme leader, it will strike without any consideration for its other interests or consideration for intermediaries like Pakistan and Qatar,” Nima Akbarkhani, an IRGC-linked pundit, said on state television on Tuesday.
Ali Samadzadeh, another state-linked analyst, claimed the emerging US-Iranian agreement could even be a “honeypot” scheme to draw out leaders.
According to US media outlets, Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard from in public since the start of the war, except for written messages attributed to him, is hiding in an undisclosed secure location where even many government officials have no access to him. US officials have said this has slowed the process of talks.
Sciences Po’s Grajewski said over the next few days, the key issue for the Islamic Republic will be securing internal approval. Hardline factions will also scrutinise any concessions made to the US, even those made as part of a crisis-management memorandum that leaves more difficult issues to be faced at a later date.
“So, the realistic outcome in the near term is probably an unstable interim arrangement rather than a comprehensive settlement,” she said.
“Whether it evolves into something more durable depends almost entirely on whether the follow-on nuclear negotiations produce concrete mechanisms both sides can live with.”
Convictions handed down amid an intensified crackdown by Bahraini authorities on individuals accused of having ties to Tehran.
Published On 24 May 202624 May 2026
Bahrain has sentenced nine people to life in prison for carrying out what authorities describe as “hostile and terrorist acts” in cooperation with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Two other defendants were also jailed for three years each after being convicted of collaborating with the IRGC in what prosecutors described as “terrorist and espionage” activities, state media reported on Sunday.
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The convictions were handed down during an intensified crackdown by Bahraini authorities on individuals accused of ties to Tehran. The crackdown followed a wave of Iranian strikes on Bahrain after the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February. Iran began striking all of its Gulf neighbours in response, saying it was targeting American interests, including military bases.
Prosecutors said some of the defendants photographed vital and strategic sites in Bahrain on behalf of the IRGC. Others were accused of facilitating the transfer of funds from Iran to Bahrain, including through cryptocurrency transactions, to finance the operations. Authorities also alleged that individuals inside the country were recruited to support some of the plans.
Bahrain began arresting individuals allegedly linked to Iran in March, shortly after the conflict began.
Earlier this month, authorities detained a further 41 people.
Less than two weeks later, more than 60 people were stripped of their citizenship for allegedly supporting Iranian attacks on Bahrain and “colluding with foreign entities”.
The London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy described the move as “dangerous” and said it constituted a clear violation of international law.
Other Gulf states have also arrested individuals accused of cooperating with Iran. Last month, the United Arab Emirates said it had dismantled a group allegedly planning to carry out what officials described as “terrorist acts”.
Bahrain is home to a large Shia population. Many of its members have long accused the authorities of political and economic marginalisation. The government denies discriminating against Shia citizens, accusing Iran of fuelling unrest in the country.