Middle East rocked by heaviest attacks since US-Iran April ceasefire

The Middle East has been rocked by US and Iranian attacks of a scale unseen since an April ceasefire, as fighting over the strategic Strait of Hormuz threatened to derail efforts to permanently end the war.

As the US attacks on Iran continued on Monday, Tehran said it would stop complying with a framework agreement signed in June to halt the fighting if Washington failed to meet its commitments.

It also responded with attacks of its own targeting Gulf nations, with the powerful Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) announcing new strikes on Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Oman.

“There is no doubt that this document is in crisis,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

“Each time that the other party has failed to meet its obligations, we did not uphold ours,” he added.

“We will continue to act in this manner.”

He nonetheless added that Tehran was continuing talks with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman in an effort to prevent any further escalation.

The US Central Command (Centcom) said its forces had completed their latest barrage, which began overnight, on dozens of Iranian targets.

US aircraft, naval vessels and drones hit “dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”.

The latest salvo by US forces began at 2am PKT on Sunday, Centcom said on X. The fresh strikes came less than 24 hours after a previous wave in which Centcom said 140 Iranian military targets were hit.

Iranian state media reported two deaths in the latest US strikes that it said targeted large areas across the south and west.

One person was killed and four wounded at a water pumping station in the southwestern city of Mahshahr, state news agency IRNA said.

Iranian state media reported that the latest US strikes targeted large areas across southern and western Iran, including Qeshm island and Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz, and in Khuzestan province bordering Iraq.

‘Futile efforts’

The past week’s hostilities have centred on the critical energy trade route, which Iran’s IRGC says is “closed” but which the US maintains is open to maritime traffic and not controlled by Iran.

Oil prices, which tumbled after the announcement of the June agreement, jumped by up to 4.5 per cent, with the US benchmark WTI climbing to nearly $74 a barrel on fears of hampered supply on global markets.

Iran’s foreign ministry said the US attacks had “caused the return of insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz” and “rendered futile all efforts” at establishing peace in the region.

Mediators, including Pakistan, have been trying to salvage a diplomatic resolution to the war after US President Donald Trump this week said he considered the peace MoU “over” but let the door remain open for talks.

Pakistan, a key intermediary in negotiations, on Sunday expressed “deep concern at escalation in regional tensions”.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called for “de-escalation” on Sunday during a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Analyst Bader Al-Saif said the escalating attacks would merely delay a permanent agreement.

“Both sides want to end the impasse on their own terms, and they are increasingly finding it difficult to do so. Hence the return to and increase in the scale of attacks,” said Al-Saif, an associate fellow at Chatham House.

“That only prolongs what will eventually happen: a negotiated settlement.”

Control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz has become key leverage for Iran, with an adviser to the country’s supreme leader on Sunday saying it was more important than “dozens of atomic bombs”.

Attacks in Gulf countries

Iran’s IRGC said it had struck US military targets and bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait, state media reported on Monday.

IRNA cited several statements released by the Guards saying they had attacked Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan, a US military drone command centre in Bahrain and airbases including Ali Al Salem in Kuwait.

The IRGC also said its missile and drone attacks had set fire to fuel storage tanks and ammunition depots on the Jordanian base used by the US military.

It said missiles and drones hit Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base. The attack was the first phase of the response to the latest US strikes.

It also said that a military base at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa was hit in the second phase of the retaliatory operation.

The US Fifth Fleet headquarters is in Bahrain, but it is not at Sheikh Isa, which is a Bahraini base. However, the base has hosted US military operations and aircraft.

Revolutionary Guards also claimed attacks on Ali Al Salem and Ahmad Al Jaber military bases in Kuwait. Both these bases are Kuwaiti but host the US military.

It also said an air defence unit destroyed a Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (Lucas) drone belonging to the US military near the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Monday, Mehr News reported.

There was no immediate US response to the statement.

The IRGC statement also said that ending US military interventions in the Strait of Hormuz was the only way to restore vessel passage.

It warned that continued interference could lead to greater incidents in the global oil and gas sector.

Air raid alerts sounded in Bahrain, while Kuwait’s army said the country’s forces were intercepting “hostile aerial targets” on Monday.

Jordan’s army said it had intercepted four Iranian missiles.

Bahrain’s military accused Iran of committing “heinous attacks with missiles and drones that target civilians”, adding it had shot down a number of Iranian projectiles on Monday morning.

The renewed fighting followed an Iranian attack early on Sunday on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz whose crew was forced to abandon it after it went up in flames.

Iran’s IRGC said after the incident that “the Strait of Hormuz will be closed until further notice and until the end of American interventions in this region,” according to state news agency IRNA.

US Centcom countered on X that the strait was “open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit”.

Hormuz traffic slows to two-month low

The number of tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz fell in the past day to the lowest level in two months, shipping data showed on Monday, as the renewed US-Iran strikes and attacks on vessels heightened safety concerns.

Shipping industry sources said vessels were increasingly switching off their public AIS tracking transponders, making it difficult to determine the full number of ships crossing the waterway.

Based on available data, oil and gas tanker traffic fell to its lowest level since May 25, according to analysis from Kpler.

“Should the renewed escalation in the strait lead to another prolonged closure of Hormuz, the world will find itself in a much tougher spot,” ship broker Gibson said in a report.

“With global inventories rapidly depleted in recent months, this is a recipe for much tighter supply, higher prices and significant downside risk for tanker markets.”

The Sea Faith oil products tanker was among the few visible vessels sailing towards the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz near the Iranian side of the waterway, with a destination of Sohar, according to LSEG and MarineTraffic ship-tracking data on Monday.

Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz “continued at reduced levels”, the US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC) said in an advisory on Sunday.

“Traffic patterns continued to reflect operator caution following recent attacks.”

At least three pairs of tankers were involved in ship-to-ship transfers (STS) outside of Hormuz off Oman’s coast in the Gulf of Oman, according to the latest satellite imagery from July 11 reviewed by Reuters.

Ship-to-ship (STS) transfers typically involve the transfer of oil from one vessel to another. Since the conflict began on February 28, STS transfers have enabled faster deliveries of oil onto waiting ships that do not need to sail through Hormuz.

“Some ships are slipping in and out,” one shipping official said on Monday.

“This has to be viewed as a managed conflict now similar to the Houthis in the Red Sea,” the source said, referring to the Yemeni armed group, which paralysed traffic through the Bab al Mandeb waterway for nearly two years before calling a ceasefire in 2026. ...