Bahrain said it had been targeted by Iranian drones and a ship in the Strait of Hormuz was struck on Saturday, adding fresh tension to the detente established in the wake of an interim U.S.-Iran peace deal signed earlier this month.
Bahrain Drone Attack and Tanker Strike
Bahrain’s foreign ministry said a number of Iranian drones targeted the country, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, early on Saturday morning, state-run BNA reported. Tehran has repeatedly targeted it and other Gulf states that host American military bases and thousands of troops since the US and Israel launched the war in late February.
Meanwhile, a U.K. naval group on Saturday said a tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, though vessel-tracking data show that multiple ships continued to transit the waterway Saturday morning.
Iran Claims Retaliation for U.S. Strikes
Iran claimed on Saturday that it had targeted U.S. sites in the Persian Gulf following U.S. strikes on its missile storage and radar installations on Friday. Those were in response to an Iranian drone hit on a container ship in Hormuz that sparked off the fresh round of attacks on Thursday. An unnamed U.S. official told CNN after the U.S. strikes that the action didn’t constitute a return to major combat operations for now.
The back-and-forth extended fighting around the waterway into a third day and risks slowing progress toward restoring shipping traffic in Hormuz to pre-war levels.
Security Threat Raised to Substantial
The Joint Maritime Information Center on Saturday raised the security threat in Hormuz to “substantial” following the attacks on merchant vessels, and published a warning area for potential mines spanning much of the usual transit route. It also said that the Omani route recommended by western navies had been expanded to allow ships to transit in both directions simultaneously.
Accusations of Ceasefire Violations
Tehran and Washington have traded accusations that the other party violated the ceasefire. Iran’s foreign ministry in a statement on Saturday called the US attack “an explicit violation of the first paragraph of the Memorandum of Understanding” that the two countries signed earlier this month. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it had struck U.S. sites in response, though it didn’t say which. U.S. Central Command didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Iranian claims.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that the U.S. had “honored” the deal. “If they have disagreements about how the MOU is being applied, they can pick up the phone,” he said on X on Friday. “But violence will be met with violence.”
Progress and Setback on Lebanon Conflict
Even as the broader U.S.-Iran deal suffered a setback, there was some progress on a key sticking point — Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and fight with Tehran-backed Hezbollah, which has killed thousands. On Friday, the two countries and the US signed an initial agreement aimed at paving the way for ending the conflict and ultimately reaching a peace settlement. By Saturday morning, however, Hezbollah’s chief Naim Qasem called the deal “null and void.”
