Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it carried out strikes against Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for United States attacks on Iranian territory, warning that any further aggression would be met with a “crushing response”.
Iran and the US have both accused the other of violating their fragile ceasefire, straining negotiations meant to end the Middle East war.
The guards “destroyed eight important US military facilities at the Ali al-Salem base in Kuwait and at the Fifth Fleet naval base in Port Salman in Bahrain,” the statement said.
“Any enemy aggression, whatever the pretext, even against insignificant targets ... will have a crushing response,” the guards added.
A Memorandum of Understanding was reached in mid-June under Pakistan’s mediation, aimed at putting a lasting end to the war.
The text signed by the US and Iran said both countries, and their respective allies, were “not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other”.
The US military bombed Iran for a second consecutive day, in what it said was retaliation for an Iranian attack on a tanker in the vital Strait of Hormuz.
In the memorandum Iran agreed to “safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge, for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa” in the strait.
The guards said today that measures had been taken to control traffic through the strait and that violating ships would be dealt with more firmly than before.
The force had also previously warned against any passage through the strait without its permission.
That came after Oman, which shares the opposite shore with Iran, flagged an alternative route.
The only passage authorised by Iran is through a corridor running along its coast at this time.
- AFP