Tehran dragged its Gulf neighbors back into the U.S.-Iran war on Thursday, firing a volley of drones and missiles at American partners across the region as part of a major flare-up in violence that upended peace talks.
Read more Virginia, Maryland dealing with parasitic illness cyclosporiasis
Jordan confirmed that it had to intercept at least eight ballistic missiles, while Bahrain’s military said it intercepted several rounds of drones and missiles.
Kuwait faced three ballistic missiles, one cruise missile and 10 drones. While they were intercepted, there was some damage from debris and one person was seriously injured.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it targeted U.S. military bases in the Gulf region in response to President Trump’s latest round of attacks on Iranian targets.
“The fighters of Islam will not leave the aggressions of the child-killing U.S. army unanswered,” the IRGC said Thursday in a statement carried by state-affiliated media.
Iran lashed out after the U.S. struck 170 targets in Iran this week.
SEE ALSO: Trump says he does not know if U.S. is returning to full-scale war with Iran
Those strikes were in response to Iran’s targeting of commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state media reported Thursday that damage from one headline-making U.S. strike — on the Tehran-Mashhad railway bridge in northeastern Iran — had been repaired and that the bridge would be available for use by passenger trains.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday called counterparts in Oman, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to discuss the situation in the Middle East. He also spoke to Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has been a key mediator between the Americans and the Iranians in the on-again, off-again peace talks.
The eruption of fighting threatens to unravel the progress both sides made in settling the war, which began with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28.
The initial strikes killed Iran’s top leaders and decimated its military infrastructure. Yet Iran clamped down on oil traffic near its shores in retaliation, roiling markets and lifting gas prices.
The countries agreed to a mid-June memorandum of understanding that called for an end to fighting and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran seems intent on retaining some control over the waterway, however, complicating final-stage negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said his country would not back down.
Read more ‘Wished he hadn’t done it’: Tyler Robinson’s ex-boyfriend describes Kirk shooting aftermath
“America still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free,” he said on X. “Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you’ll get hit.”
U.S. stocks rose Thursday despite the new tensions, as investors weighed mixed signals from Washington and Tehran.
Major indexes opened in positive territory after a big midweek selloff that was fueled by tit-for-tat strikes in Iran over Tehran’s aggression in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil traffic.
The price of Brent crude oil dipped slightly, settling around $75 per barrel after trading a few dollars higher earlier on Thursday.
Yet the average U.S. gas price rose 5 cents on Thursday to $3.85 per gallon, up from $3.80 on Wednesday, according to the AAA motor club.
Gas prices averaged about $3 per gallon at the start of the war on Feb. 28, and they had been falling after the mid-June pause in the fighting. Renewed strikes seemed to arrest and reverse that decline, at least for now.
Stocks were buoyed Thursday by chipmakers’ performance, and Wall Street seems to be betting that Washington can manage the economic fallout from the conflict.
Mr. Trump pointed directly to the economic benefits of halting the fighting when he signed the ceasefire memo last month, saying he did not want to be remembered as the next Herbert Hoover, referring to the president who oversaw the start of the Great Depression.
The president said late Wednesday he does not know if the U.S. is returning to a full-scale war with Iran. He said Tehran still wants to reach a peace settlement.
Iran’s actions in the strait remain a key wild card.
“Don’t flail around pointlessly, or you’ll sink even deeper,” Mr. Ghalibaf said on X. “The Strait of Hormuz will only open with ’Iranian arrangements,’ not American threats.”
The U.S. military this week launched 170 strikes on Iranian targets over two days.
“Every time they hit us, we’re going to hit them 20 to 1,” Mr. Trump told reporters on his return from a summit of NATO leaders in Turkey.
“They want to make a deal so badly,” he said, but added: “I don’t know if they’re going to honor the deal. That’s the problem.”
Read more Inside AIPAC’s $1.2M bid to make sure ‘Squad’ member Cori Bush stays out of Congress
About the Author
