Ceasefire again on the brink as U.S. strikes Iran, Tehran fires missiles at Bahrain, Kuwait
by Ben Wolfgang · The Washington TimesA fragile ceasefire came under new strain Sunday after the U.S. and Iran traded a fresh wave of attacks and the Trump administration warned that its patience with the theocratic regime in Tehran was rapidly running out.
In the latest flare-up, U.S. forces struck targets in Iran late Saturday. A few hours later, Tehran launched assaults on Bahrain and Kuwait, both home to key American military bases. President Trump said in a social media post that “the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist” unless Tehran changes course after apparent Iranian attacks on multiple commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials insisted that Tehran alone controls the strait, a key waterway for moving oil and other goods through the Persian Gulf.
The latest rounds of strikes represent yet another blow to the fragile ceasefire that the U.S. and Iran agreed to earlier this month. Although key administration officials said both sides were still working on a plan to return international watchdogs to inspect Iran’s nuclear program, the administration suggested those talks could soon end and full-blown hostilities may resume.
“The president’s patience isn’t going to last forever,” Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“They need to understand their leverage is diminishing by the day,” he said.
The Trump administration entered into a memorandum of understanding with Iran earlier this month.
That memo called for an end to the fighting and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz during 60 days of final-stage negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and other matters.
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For the past several weeks, that arrangement seemed to work. No significant clashes between the opposing sides had erupted, other than in Lebanon, where U.S. ally Israel continued battling the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah despite Tehran’s insistence that the fighting there also be subject to the ceasefire.
Yet U.S. officials said Iran was no longer complying with the deal.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that Iranian forces targeted the Panama-flagged oil tanker M/T Kiku on Saturday morning as it sailed through the Strait of Hormuz. The channel had become the central flash point in the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Last week, Iran targeted the commercial ship M/V Ever Lovely, CENTCOM said.
U.S. forces targeted Iranian military sites late Friday in response to the attack on M/V Ever Lovely and struck again late Saturday after the M/T Kiku was hit by a one-way attack drone.
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“CENTCOM forces launched strikes today in direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping. U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities,” a CENTCOM statement said.
“Commercial vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz continue. U.S. forces remain vigilant, lethal and ready,” the statement said.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump warned Iran against further targeting of commercial ships.
“It is very possible that they will never learn! 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,” the president posted. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”
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Ceasefire in jeopardy
Early Sunday, the Kuwaiti military said air defenses intercepted incoming Iranian drones and missiles just after the latest U.S. strikes. Kuwait, which hosts a major U.S. Army base, announced that its forces successfully intercepted two ballistic missiles along with multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, with no reports of injuries or damage.
The Bahraini 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 eight-story building with its top floor destroyed, windows blown out and rubble throughout.
Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base was repeatedly attacked during the conflict. The damaged building was not near the fleet’s headquarters, in downtown Manama.
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The Bahraini Foreign Ministry denounced 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.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Separately, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on social media that Israeli and U.S. leaders should be charged with war crimes.
“The confessions and even brazen boasting of some of the leaders of the US-Zionist enemy regarding these crimes, are indisputably an admission of crime, and these effectively pave the way for the vindication of the [Iranian] nation’s rights that have been violated,” he wrote.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated Tehran’s territorial claims over the critical waterway.
“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,” Mr. Araghchi said Sunday during a trip to Baghdad.
Mr. Araghchi is a key figure in Iran’s negotiations with the U.S.
On June 22, Vice President J.D. Vance and Iranian negotiators completed the first round of talks in Switzerland. The Trump administration said Iran agreed to accept United Nations inspectors at sensitive nuclear sites and to buy American farm products with its unfrozen assets.
Iranian officials disputed the specifics of that account.
Despite the flare-up, some U.S. lawmakers insisted that the major conflict was over.
“The major war is over, and think of this as almost just a mop-up operation,” Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“We have to press them if they strike us. We have to strike them back by 10,” he said.
• Jeff Mordock and Tom Howell Jr. contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.
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Ben Wolfgang
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