Tehran warns of ‘complete halt’ to war talks after Iran, US exchange attacks
Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region and imperiled negotiations for a lasting ceasefire.
A multinational maritime body overseen by the US 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 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. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated the claim during a 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,” he saidThe 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 US 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 US and Iran have 60 days to iron out the details. The strikes threaten to torpedo the deal before it can be finalized.
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 Kuwaiti military said air defenses intercepted incoming Iranian drones and missiles Sunday morning, just after the US strikes.
Kuwait, which hosts a major US 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.The strikes came after the US and Iran traded attacks over the weekend. The US military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” on Sunday, 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 US.The incident follows a similar back-and-forth that occurred just days prior, when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off the coast of Oman on Thursday, and the US military retaliated with strikes