New attacks in the Middle East on Friday threatened to unravel an already fragile US-Iran ceasefire, even as American officials confirmed that Tehran’s football players had received visas for the World Cup.
Weeks of complex talks marked by threats and flare-ups of violence have failed to secure a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for global energy flows.
A ceasefire in the Middle East war, triggered nearly 100 days ago by US and Israeli strikes that wiped out Iran’s top leadership, has been in place since 8 April.
But tensions surged again on Friday when the US military said it struck radar sites in Iran after downing drones headed toward the strait.
Shortly after, air raid sirens sounded in neighbouring Gulf nations Kuwait and Bahrain.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on early Saturday that they had targeted ‘enemy bases in the area’ with missiles in response to a US ‘invasion’ of the country’s Sirik and Qeshm islands.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said, “Iran launched seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain.”
CENTCOM said, “six of the missiles were downed, while the seventh did not reach its intended target.”
“There are currently no reports of harm to US personnel, and Iranian claims of damaging the US 5th fleet headquarters in Bahrain are false,” the command said in a statement.
The latest flare-up came despite the United States moving ahead with allowing Iran’s national football team to travel to the FIFA World Cup it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed the visa issuances, saying, “sports transcend borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world.”
However, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that visas had yet to be issued for some members of the team’s technical and executive staff.
An unnamed US administration official said in a statement, “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretences."
The team are due to fly from Turkey to Spain on Saturday before travelling on to their base camp in Mexico, where they will arrive on Sunday.
Earlier Friday, CENTCOM stated that its forces also downed four Iranian drones headed toward the Strait of Hormuz before striking Iranian coastal radar installations in Goruk and on Qeshm Island.
“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” while the strikes on radar installations “defend against further attacks", CENTCOM also said in a statement.
Efforts to turn the truce into a lasting settlement have repeatedly stalled, while the conflict has rattled global markets and increased political pressure on Trump at home ahead of midterm elections.
“The negotiations are at a deadlock, and Trump must break this deadlock,” Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN in an interview on Friday, as he called for the release of frozen Iranian assets to the tune of $24 billion.
Lebanon, which was drawn into the Middle East war when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2, called on Friday for Iran to stop interfering in its affairs.
Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah traded attacks. The group flatly rejected a new truce deal.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam addressed Iran’s leaders in frank terms during a press conference, saying, “Have mercy on our south; stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip.”
“We are the people of a sovereign nation that refuses to serve as an open battlefield for their wars,” he added.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took aim at similar criticism from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on early Saturday, calling on him to save Lebanon from its real foe.
Iran, which is engaged in peace negotiations with Washington, insists that the fighting in Lebanon and the war in the Gulf are inextricably linked.
