Iran fired missiles and drones at Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar early Sunday in response to widespread American strikes, as a flare-up with the US continued to erode a ceasefire agreement between the two foes.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it had destroyed a command and control center and drone hangars in US ally Jordan, targeted a US radar site in Kuwait, attacked US aircraft carrier support and refueling platforms in Oman, and destroyed a jet maintenance center and command facility in Qatar, the first strikes on the key mediator since April.
Iran has so far not made good on its Friday threat to target Israel as well if American strikes persist.
“Three missiles fired from Iranian territory fell at dawn in several locations across the kingdom, without causing any casualties. The damage is limited to minor material losses,” said a Jordanian military source quoted in an army statement.
Kuwait’s armed forces said they intercepted hostile aerial targets inside Kuwaiti airspace, while Qatar’s government said three people, including a child, were injured by falling shrapnel from the attack on that country.
The United Arab Emirates said its defense systems engaged missiles and drones from Iran. However, the UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority later said that missile threats detected earlier in the day were outside the country’s borders.
Sites in Oman’s Musandam region were targeted with drones, its state news agency reported, without saying whether there had been any casualties.
A series of attacks between the US and Iran over the past several days led US President Donald Trump to declare the end of a ceasefire meant to halt the fighting that the US and Israel began on February 28, though Trump has left the door open to continued negotiations.
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted on X on Sunday: “The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”
An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz was more important than “dozens of atomic bombs,” vowing to protect the vital waterway.
“This strategic passage is more important than dozens of atomic bombs, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will protect it,” Mohsen Rezaee was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying. Western countries accuse Iran of seeking to create an atomic bomb, but Tehran has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes.
Tehran’s latest strikes marked a sharp escalation in pace and targets. In recent weeks, Iran had hit Kuwait and Bahrain while avoiding Qatar since early April and the UAE since early May.
“Qatar condemns in the strongest possible terms the renewed attacks carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, also referring to the targeting of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait and calling the barrages a “dangerous escalation.”
The attack on Qatar targeted a state whose mediation efforts have been central to attempts to broker a ceasefire between the US and Iran. Doha has previously said it would not act as a mediator so long as it was under attack.
Oman, another mediator, was also not spared.
The Oman News Agency said on X that “the Sultanate of Oman affirms its condemnation and denunciation of this attack,” which came just hours after the country hosted Iran’s foreign minister to address security issues in the Strait of Hormuz.
The war has destabilized the Gulf, while Iran’s effective blockade of the strait has caused energy prices to surge, fueling global inflation.
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