Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes and threatens to halt talks to end the war

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa share a word after their meeting, at Al-Sakhir Palace near Zallaq, Bahrain, last week [AP Photo]

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks yesterday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.

Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic, setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran.

Iran insists that after the war it alone must govern the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. The global community has long considered the strait an international passageway, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters. In recent days, Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through a route on the Omani side of the strait backed by a United Nations agency.

The United States and Iran are still debating the terms of an interim peace deal, including issues such as getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, removing U.S. blockades and sanctions, and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month, the U.S. and Iran have 60 days to iron out the details. The strikes threaten to torpedo the deal before it can be finalized.

Strikes target Gulf states hosting US military

The Kuwaiti military said air defenses intercepted incoming Iranian drones and missiles yesterday, just after the U.S. strikes.

Kuwait, which hosts a major U.S. army base, said it had detected and intercepted two ballistic missiles and there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said the Iranian strikes damaged a residential building near the international airport and no one was killed. The ministry released photos of an 8-story building, with the top floor completely destroyed, filled with rubble and its windows blown out.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base there came under repeated attack during the war. The damaged building on Sunday was not near the fleet’s headquarters, in downtown Manama.

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing what it called “a dangerous escalation that reveals that what Tehran is doing is not a passing act, nor an isolated incident, but rather a deliberate approach and a systematic pattern of repeated aggression against the sovereignty of the kingdom, and the security of its citizens and residents.”

Trump accuses Iran of violating ceasefire with ship attack

The strikes came after the US and Iran traded attacks over the weekend. The U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” yesterday, following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the U.S. MDT/AP