President Donald Trump warned that the United States could be forced to return to war as a series of escalating reciprocal attacks with Iran continued on Sunday, threatening to derail peace efforts between the two countries.
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Bahrain and Kuwait faced fresh Iranian attacks early Sunday, just hours after US Central Command said it had struck multiple targets across Iran in response to “continued aggression” against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“United States aircraft strike Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites in violation of the cease-fire agreement again!” President Donald Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday.
“It is quite possible that they will never learn! There may come a time when we will no longer be able to be rational, and will be forced to finish militarily the work that we successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will cease to exist!”
CENTCOM said in a statement on Saturday that US warplanes struck 10 Iranian military targets in multiple locations.
“Iran was given the opportunity to honor the ceasefire agreement, but chose not to when its military launched a unilateral attack by drone,” it said, referring to Saturday’s attack on a Panama-flagged ship.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched more missiles and drones at US military infrastructure in Kuwait and Bahrain.
“US bases will experience hell in the coming days,” the IRGC Naval Command said, according to a report by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.
Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, said on Sunday that the overnight attacks damaged a residential building, adding that “there were no casualties.”
The country’s Foreign Ministry expressed “strong condemnation” of Iranian attacks on the region, emphasizing its right to defend itself.
“This dangerous escalation shows that Tehran’s actions are not isolated incidents or random acts, but a deliberate and systematic pattern of repeated aggression against the state’s sovereignty and the security of its citizens and residents,” a statement on X said.
Kuwait’s military said on Sunday that its air defenses were also responding to Iranian missile and drone attacks. It said two ballistic missiles were intercepted, but no damage was reported.
The series of mutual attacks began last week with a disagreement over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran, which has committed to reopening the vital waterway, has insisted that ships follow a designated route close to its coastline, but many ships are choosing to transit through the waters of the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
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The Singapore-flagged ship was attacked on Thursday, following a series of Iranian threats to ships using the alternative route, in response to which the US attacked Iranian military targets. Those attacks sparked an Iranian response, continuing a cycle of attacks that has since intensified.
According to Iran’s radical student news network, Revolutionary Guard spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said on Sunday that “whenever the enemy violates the ceasefire, it will receive an even harsher response than before.”
The Revolutionary Guard also said it would deal with ships it claimed violated the route “even stronger than before.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said later on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz would be managed under Iranian administration and “return to pre-war capacity within 30 days.”
“No other country or entity has the responsibility in this regard and any intervention or effort will complicate the situation,” he said during a visit to the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Vice President JD Vance, who was chosen to play a key role in the ongoing US-Iran talks, said on Friday: “If they have a disagreement about how the MOU is being implemented, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be responded to with violence.”
The memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran less than two weeks ago says the Strait of Hormuz – a vital waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil passed before the war – will be reopened. It added that Iran “will make arrangements” to allow safe passage of commercial vessels without charges for up to 60 days.
But both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the terms of the deal.
Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, said the memorandum of understanding is “vague and vague”.
The agreement states that Iran “must make arrangements and make best efforts to allow ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” but the U.S. “does not actually accept Iran’s designated route,” he said.
“It reveals a lot about the enormous gulf that exists between the United States and Iran,” he said. “If they can’t peacefully manage a 60-day ceasefire, how can they resolve the enormous differences regarding Iran’s nuclear program and a permanent solution?”
US allies in the Persian Gulf, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, condemned Iran’s latest attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait and called for restraint.
“Qatar emphasizes the need to protect the region from the consequences of these unjustified attacks by following the path of dialogue and diplomacy,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
“I think we don’t have a complete ceasefire, a complete ceasefire. We have a lesser ceasefire,” Gerges said. “I wonder if the new normal is a state of limbo of neither war nor peace.”
