Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday morning. The strikes were carried out in response to U.S. military attacks within Iran. Following the operation, Iranian officials threatened a complete halt to ongoing diplomatic negotiations to end the war if the United States continues its military actions.
The current conflict is tied to international efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without direct oversight from Iran. On Saturday, a multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy announced plans to expand a shipping route near Oman for inbound and outbound maritime traffic.
While international consensus designates the strait as an international passageway, the route sits within the territorial waters of Oman and Iran. In recent days, Iran has twice targeted vessels utilizing a UN-backed route on the Omani side of the waterway.
Iran maintains that it holds sole authority to govern the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that previously carried 20 percent of the world’s petroleum and natural gas. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reasserted this position during an official state visit to Iraq on Sunday.
“Any interference in this matter, any attempt to establish new or separate arrangements from those currently being carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to further complications, delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and increase the level of tension, just as over the past two nights we witnessed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz that led to an increase in tension and confrontation,” Araghchi stated in Baghdad.
The targeted nations both host significant U.S. military deployments. The Kuwaiti military reported that its air defense systems successfully intercepted two incoming Iranian ballistic missiles on Sunday morning shortly after the U.S. strikes. Officials in Kuwait, which hosts a major U.S. Army base, reported no injuries or structural damage.
In Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, the Interior Ministry confirmed that an Iranian strike hit a residential area. The attack damaged an eight-story residential building located near the international airport, destroying the top floor and blowing out windows. No casualties were reported, and officials noted the location was not near the 5th Fleet headquarters in downtown Manama.
Following the strike, Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry issued an official statement condemning the action.
The ministry described the bombardment as “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.”
The exchange of fire follows a series of military actions over the weekend. On Thursday, an Iranian drone struck a commercial vessel off the coast of Oman, prompting retaliatory U.S. strikes. Early Saturday morning, another attack targeted the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, which was transporting crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a nation serving as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran.
The U.S. Military Central Command stated that its subsequent Sunday strikes targeted Iranian surveillance infrastructure, communication networks, air defense installations, drone storage areas, and minelaying assets.
Donald Trump addressed the military response via a social media post on Truth Social, writing that the U.S. had “struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” He stated that further violations could lead to a decisive military response.
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote.
These military actions occur as the United States and Iran negotiate the provisions of an interim peace treaty. The talks cover shipping protocols through the strait, the cessation of U.S. economic sanctions and blockades, and the status of Iran’s enriched uranium reserves. Under a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month, both nations have a 60-day window to finalize these terms. The agreement faces additional complications from ongoing combat in Lebanon, where an Israeli soldier was reported killed by Hezbollah fire early Sunday morning.
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