Iran strikes Gulf neighbours after US attack

DUBAI (AP):

Iran fired on US allies in the Gulf early yesterday following a night of American bombardment that Iranian state media says included a deadly strike on a wedding party.

The latest violence came after a month-long lull in fighting. The six-month war has led to a spike in oil prices, roiled the global economy, and posed increasing political problems for US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November midterm elections.

Fighting has escalated since the American military hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, saying that Iran was planning to use them to lay mines. Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan that were intercepted.

American military resources are stretched, and political pressure in Washington is mounting, while Iran’s economy has been battered by sanctions and an American naval blockade. Iran’s currency hit another record low on Wednesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging $IRR2.20 million for one US dollar, a 10 per cent hike from last week’s record.

Neither side can continue indefinitely between full-scale war and a truce, said Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst at the Crisis Group, an international think tank.

“At some point, one of the sides may see a need to escalate in order to break this cycle,” he cautioned. “So that could bring the two sides to a point that they have been trying to avoid until now, which is a full-scale war.”

The latest flare-up in violence came as the standoff seemed to be shifting slightly more in the US’ favour, with the price of oil around US$80 a barrel and Iranian leaders talking about growing economic hardships, said Sascha Bruchmann, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Middle East office in Bahrain.

“The US is trying to reinstall some kind of confidence into the global oil markets … and the Iranians had to respond to that by reinserting insecurity and doubt,” Bruchmann said.

Since the fighting resumed, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has climbed to around US$95, up more than 30 per cent from the start of the war.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran will “continue to feel the squeeze” from the United States until it drops any nuclear weapons ambitions and ends support for armed groups in the Middle East. Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Following the strikes on Jordan, US Gulf allies Kuwait and Bahrain said they had also come under attack, without reporting any casualties.

“You will soon see that Iran’s new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in confronting the economic blockade will shatter your foundations,” the recently appointed head of Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said on X.

During last month’s lull in fighting, the US ramped up economic pressure on Iran as Washington sought to fully open the Strait of Hormuz.

About a fifth of the world’s traded oil was shipped through the key waterway before Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, and Iran largely shut it down in response. Despite many pronouncements from Washington that the strait is open, only a handful of ships are making the passage each day, and Iran has regularly attacked vessels.

A ceasefire deal reached in June quickly fell apart amid exchanges of strikes that same month. Mediator Pakistan has been working to restart talks.

Late Tuesday, Trump said he would not force Iran to the bargaining table.