US Strikes Near Bandar Abbas Prompt IRGC Retaliation and Kuwait Drone Attacks

The United States and Iran traded airstrikes on Thursday after the U.S. conducted strikes near the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, prompting retaliatory action from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and driving crude prices upward.

Reuters reported that the U.S. military intercepted four Iranian attack drones and destroyed a ground control station in Bandar Abbas, while the IRGC claimed it had attacked a U.S. military installation in Kuwait in response to the Bandar Abbas strikes.

Al Jazeera

Kuwaiti officials said they were countering drone and missile assaults, and NBC News reported that Kuwait shot down the ballistic missile fired at an American air base in Kuwait with no damage or casualties reported.

The renewed hostilities threatened a fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, and the BBC said the IRGC targeted an American air base after fresh U.S. strikes on southern Iran overnight.

Axios reported, as confirmed by CBC News with U.S. officials, that the two sides reached an outline agreement to extend their ceasefire pending President Donald Trump’s approval, with a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the truce and launch negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.

Trump told media at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he was not yet satisfied by the negotiations and that the U.S. was not discussing easing of Iranian sanctions, while NBC News said he signaled an agreement between the two sides wasn’t close and he would not be rushed by either international economic pressure or the political pressure of upcoming midterm elections.

Anadolu Ajansı

In response to the latest strikes, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said U.S. attacks were “provocations” that “certainly constitute a violation of the ceasefire,” and the BBC said Centcom described its actions as “measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire.”

Trump also warned Oman, and CBC News quoted him saying, “It's international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up,” as the BBC reported that the disruption around Hormuz threatened global supplies of food and energy.

Negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz remained a central sticking point, with CBC News saying ongoing sanctions, the dismantling of Iran's nuclear capacity and the blockage of the Strait of ⁠Hormuz were the major sticking points in talks to end the three-month conflict.

“In short: Iran has targeted a US air base in Kuwait, after the US struck what Washington described as an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz”

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The BBC reported that the U.S. imposed sanctions on the “Persian Gulf Strait Authority,” and it said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Oman that Washington would not “tolerate any effort to impose a tolling system in the waterway.”

In parallel, the U.S. Treasury Department added the Persian Gulf Strait Authority to a list of sanctioned people and entities seen as posing threats to U.S. national security, while CNN reported that Iran’s newly created body to force shippers to comply with its rules around the Strait of Hormuz had been added to a U.S. Treasury sanctions list.

The stakes were also framed in economic terms, with the IndexBox noting that oil prices were last up 2.6% after Thursday's attacks and that the strait handled one-fifth of global oil shipments, while the BBC said closure of the shipping channel had impacted global fuel trade.