Iran attacks Bahrain, Kuwait after US strikes

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks on Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to US 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 US Navy said on 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 being situated 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.