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Iran said it had reached targets related to US forces on Saturday in response to US airstrikes on its southern coast, as each side continued to accuse the other of violating a deal last week aimed at ending the four-month-old war.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not identify the locations of the “defensive” attacks, which it said were in response to “brutal airstrikes” by the US on its coast guard facilities, which it said violated the UN Charter.
Later, Bahrain, which is in charge of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, condemned what it called an Iranian drone attack on its territory as a clear violation of its sovereignty and a threat to its security, adding that it reserved the right to self-defense.
Washington did not immediately respond to Iran’s report of attacking American targets, which is a strategy that seeks to undermine America’s allies in the region during the conflict.
The US military said its strikes on Friday were in response to an Iranian airstrike a day earlier on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy use.
The fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran has stalled after US President Donald Trump accused Iran of attacking a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
In another, Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Both sides said the deal was the first step for Hezbollah to disarm and Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, but it was unclear how it would be implemented. Hezbollah has said it will not cooperate.
But on Saturday, Lebanon’s state news agency said an Israeli warplane had raided the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon on Saturday.
Iranian state television said the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had given a “clear response” after US forces struck a telecommunications tower in the port city of Sirik. Iran’s Mehr News Agency said the port was operating normally and no damage was reported to facilities or equipment.
Bahrain has said that Iran’s continued aggression, despite efforts to destabilize the region and other countries, undermines peace and stability in the region. It also accused Tehran of violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 2817 and Islamabad’s June 17 memorandum of understanding.
After Thursday’s strike on a cargo ship off the coast of Oman, Iran denied responsibility. Instead, it asserted its authority to control shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
It also said ships must follow the routes designated by Tehran, warned Gulf states against siding with Washington and said the Iran-US interim agreement gave it the power to control shipping through the strategic waterway.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security committee in Iran’s parliament, said on Saturday that any violation of Iranian shipping orders on the river would be fully met.
The U.S. Central Command condemned what it called Iran’s strike as “unnecessary aggression against commercial shipping,” adding that the U.S. would continue to provide “safe communication and support” to commercial vessels passing through the strait — a route for a fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supplies before the U.S. and Israel went to war in Feb.
‘Violence will be met with violence’: Vance
US Vice President JD Vance, who was once seen as a skeptic of US intervention in Iran but is now a key figure for President Donald Trump in the conflict, said the American people are sticking to the ceasefire agreement, also known as the memorandum of understanding.
“Iran has signed a cease-fire agreement. We have respected it. If they have a disagreement about how the MOU is being implemented, they can pick up the phone. But violence will be met with violence,” said Vance on social media X.
Before the renewed violence, oil prices fell nearly 3 percent on Friday, due to heavy weekly losses as oil tankers left the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Aramco has resumed crude loading at its Ras Tanura oil terminal in the Gulf, the world’s largest oil port, after a nearly four-month standstill, shipping data showed. Fertilizer shipments for the crisis have also begun, helping to ease concerns about rising food prices around the world.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – closing a trip to the Gulf to reassure regional partners about the interim agreement – issued a joint statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council calling for “free, unconditional, and unlimited navigation” in the crisis without tolls or “efforts to ensure control.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the crisis should be managed by Iran and Oman, while Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned Washington’s Gulf allies that their survival depended on Tehran’s patience.
