President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House. (Photo: AP)
What began as a dispute over commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has now expanded into a broader regional confrontation, with Iran launching missile and drone strikes against US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, with President Donald Trump threatening to destroy the Islamic Republic entirely. Both sides accused the other of wrecking a peace deal signed less than two weeks ago.
What did Trump say, and how serious is his warning?
Writing on Truth Social after US forces struck Iranian targets for a second consecutive night, Trump confirmed that American aircraft had hit Iranian missile and drone storage sites and coastal radar positions, saying Iran had violated the ceasefire agreement “AGAIN”.
He then issued the most direct threat yet from Washington.
“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,” Trump wrote. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist.”
Within an hour of that post, Kuwait’s army said its air defences were responding to hostile missile and drone attacks, and air raid sirens sounded across Bahrain.
US Vice President JD Vance, who has led negotiations with Tehran, had warned the night before that Iran should “pick up the phone” if it had concerns about the ceasefire terms, adding that “violence will be met with violence”.
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Where did Iran strike and what did it say?
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed it had launched missile and drone operations targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, saying the strikes were a direct response to American attacks on Iranian territory.
The IRGC named Al Asad Air Base in Kuwait as one of the targets. Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, was struck twice in the space of hours, with sirens sounding on two separate occasions overnight.
A US official told Reuters there were no reported American casualties or significant damage to US facilities, though the situation was still developing.
The IRGC said in a statement that US strikes had violated the ceasefire and warned the attacks “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”.
Its navy command went further.
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“The American bases in the region are a separate matter,” the IRGC navy said. “They will experience hell in these days.”
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the US strikes “brutal attacks” which showed Washington “does not place the slightest value on its commitments”, adding that “breaking promises is part of the nature of this regime.” It said Iran remained determined to defend its national sovereignty against what it described as US military aggression.
The current escalation follows a pattern that has now repeated itself twice in as many days.
On Thursday, an Iranian drone struck the Singapore-registered cargo ship Ever Lovely as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz. The US retaliated with strikes on Friday. Iran then struck the Panama-flagged oil tanker Kiku carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil early on Saturday morning.
The US struck back again on Saturday night, hitting ten Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the strait, according to the Associated Press (AP).
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Where does the peace deal stand now?
The 14-point interim agreement, signed less than two weeks ago, was meant to halt the fighting, reopen the strait and create space for deeper negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. One round of talks, led by Vance and Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was held in Switzerland last week. Washington subsequently waived sanctions on Tehran.
Since then, two tankers have been struck, US strikes have hit Iranian territory over two nights, Iran has attacked bases in two Gulf states, and both sides are now publicly accusing the other of destroying the deal.
The IRGC’s warning that diplomatic processes face a “complete halt” if strikes continue suggests the window for a negotiated settlement may be narrowing fast.
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