Iran and the US continued their attacks in the Gulf as each accused the other of violating an interim deal signed less than two weeks ago to end their four-month-old war.
Shortly after President Donald Trump warned the US might “militarily complete the job”, Iran early on Sunday launched missiles and drones on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, continuing a series of escalating attacks.
The US military said earlier it had struck Iran again, hours after a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Iran had largely cut off for most of the conflict.
The 14-point US-Iran interim agreement was meant to halt the fighting, which the US and Israel started on February 28, and reopen the strait to shipping while talks began on more deep-seated issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme.
One round of mediated talks, led by US Vice-President J.D. Vance and Iran’s parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington then waived sanctions on Tehran, but the fighting and recriminations have since resumed and intensified.
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” Trump posted on social media. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”