After tit-for-tat strikes by US and Iran, Araghchi says any challenge to Hormuz routes will 'increase tensions'

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Sunday that any attempt to bypass the Strait of Hormuz routes agreed with the United States would “increase tensions” in the Middle East, as the countries traded attacks and accusations of violating a fragile ceasefire in the region.

Araghchi’s warning came after the US military said it carried out new strikes on early Sunday on multiple targets in Iran, in response to a fresh attack on a ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran responded by launching strikes against US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.

The exchanges underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered interim peace deal aimed at ending a war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, which disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and rattled global energy markets.

“Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions, as we witnessed in the past two nights,” Araghchi told a press conference in Baghdad later.

During his visit to the Iraqi capital, Araghchi also called for the establishment of a security framework with Gulf countries, with Tehran and Washington accusing each other of violating the fragile truce that was meant to end the Middle East war.

Araghchi called on all parties to “adhere to the memorandum of understanding and not to allow this MoU to deviate from its course”.

Iran’s top diplomat said that “we should reach a new framework that includes all countries in the region and without the presence or interference of any country from outside the region”.

This echoed a proposal put forward by Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier this week, who called for a new “regional security structure” among regional countries.

He welcomed Iraq’s call to hold a meeting between the Gulf States, Iran and Iraq, which was drawn into the Middle East war from the beginning.

Following the US strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday they were taking measures to control traffic in Strait of Hormuz and that violating vessels would be dealt with more firmly than before.

The only authorised passage by Tehran passes through a corridor running along Iran’s coast. Vessels have continued to use a non-Iranian-approved passage in the strategic waterway, tracking platforms showed on Friday.

A day earlier, the IRGC said that Oman and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) announced the new corridor without consulting Tehran, and warned vessels against using it.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was reached between the US and Iran on June 18 under Pakistan’s mediation, aimed at putting a lasting end to the war.

In the Islamabad MoU, Iran had previously agreed “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 text signed by the United States and Iran also said that 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”.

Tit-for-tat strikes

But earlier on Sunday, Iran said it carried out a third day of retaliatory strikes after the US carried out multiple attacks on Iranian territory, as both accused each other of violating their fragile ceasefire.

US Central Command (Centcom) said American strikes were in response to an Iranian drone attack on the Panama-flagged oil tanker “Kiku”, which was carrying some two million barrels of crude.

The US military said its operation targeted “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities”.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said explosions were heard in Sirik in southern Iran, without providing details.

The IRGC said, “America’s blind shots at Sirik will not resolve our dominance over the Strait of Hormuz. But our shots at violators will remind the rest of the vessels of the clear passage route.”

The IRGC said in a statement that the US strikes had violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, according to state-run Press TV. The IRGC navy command said American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.

The IRGC also said it had carried out retaliatory strikes in Kuwait and Bahrain.

In a statement, it said the strikes “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”.

“Any enemy aggression, whatever the pretext, even against insignificant targets … will have a crushing response,” the IRGC warned.

Air raid sirens rang out twice in Bahrain on Sunday, according to the Gulf nation’s interior ministry.

A US official, confirming the attacks on US facilities, told Reuters there were no reported US casualties or major damage to US sites in the Middle East but that the situation was still unfolding.

Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, with the authorities saying an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported.

Bahrain urged the United Nations Security Council to hold an urgent session to hold Iran accountable. The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles with no damage or casualties.

Washington had carried out similar strikes on Friday, saying they were a response to an earlier Iranian attack on another vessel, the “Ever Lovely”.

US President Donald Trump early on Sunday threatened that Iran would “no longer exist” if the United States is “forced” to resume the war.

The threat came after US forces said they struck “multiple” Iranian targets Saturday in another tit-for-tat response to attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

“United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote. ...