Drones were launched at several targets in the Gulf on Sunday, with one hitting a freighter sailing towards Qatar, as Tehran warned the United States that it would no longer hold back from retaliatory strikes.\n<\/p>\n
The United Arab Emirates accused Iran of being behind an attack that targeted its territory, in what would be, if confirmed, only the second alleged strike on Gulf countries since the start of a month-old ceasefire.\n<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s military chief Ali Abdollahi met the country\u2019s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei and, according to Iranian state television, received \u201cnew directives and guidance for the continuation of operations to confront the enemy\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
This came as South Korea reported unidentified aircraft had hit a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz last week, and Qatar\u2019s defence ministry said a freighter arriving in the country\u2019s waters from Abu Dhabi was hit by a drone on Sunday northeast of the port of Mesaieed.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said the bulk carrier reported being struck by an unknown projectile. \u201cThere was a small fire that has been extinguished, there are no casualties. There is no reported environmental impact,\u201d it said.\n<\/p>\n
\u2018Restraint over\u2019\n<\/p>\n
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Iran\u2019s Fars news agency reported that \u201cthe bulk carrier that was struck near the coast of Qatar was sailing under a US flag and belonged to the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n
And, in a social media post, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament\u2019s national security commission warned the United States: \u201cOur restraint is over as of today.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAny attack on our vessels will trigger a strong and decisive Iranian response against American ships and bases,\u201d Ebrahim Rezaei said.\n<\/p>\n
This came after Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards threatened to target US interests in the Middle East if its tankers come under fire \u2014 as they had been the case on Friday when a US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iran-flagged vessels in the Gulf of Oman.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAny attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships,\u201d the IRGC said.\n<\/p>\n
Drone strikes\n<\/p>\n
The United Arab Emirates\u2019s said that its territory had also come under attack, and called out Iran by name. \u201cUAE air defence systems successfully engaged two UAVs launched from Iran,\u201d the defence ministry said, in a social media post.\n<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s neighbour Kuwait also reported an attempted attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt dawn today, the armed forces detected a number of hostile drones in Kuwaiti airspace, which were dealt with in accordance with established procedures,\u201d the military posted.\n<\/p>\n
In Seoul, defence ministry spokesman Park Il told reporters a cargo vessel had been hit on Monday and was damaged by fire before making its way to port in Dubai.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOn May 4, two unidentified aircraft struck the outer plate of the port-side ballast tank at the stern of the HMM Namu at roughly one-minute intervals, causing flames and smoke,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Iran has choked off the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a vital route out of the Gulf for oil, gas and fertiliser, seeking to wield economic leverage over the United States and its allies.\n<\/p>\n
The US Navy, meanwhile, is blockading and sometimes disabling or diverting ships heading to and from Iran\u2019s ports.\n<\/p>\n
\u2018Escalation of tensions\u2019\n<\/p>\n
Tension is rising as Washington waits for Tehran to respond to its latest offer of a deal to extend a truce to allow the foes to enter peace negotiations.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump had said he was expecting Pakistani mediators to receive Iran\u2019s answer on Friday, but none has been made public.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,\u201d Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said,\u00a0according to Iran\u2019s ISNA news agency.\n<\/p>\n
Iran has set up a payment mechanism to extract tolls from shipping crossing the strait, but US officials have stressed it would be \u201cunacceptable\u201d for Tehran to control what had been an international waterway and the route of a fifth of the world\u2019s oil exports.\n<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Saturday with the leader of Qatar, a key intermediary. Qatar\u2019s Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met the previous day with US Vice President JD Vance to discuss efforts to broker a permanent peace.\n<\/p>\n
Iran has attacked sites in Qatar during the war, pointing to the wealthy emirate\u2019s role as host of a major US air base.\n<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drones were launched at several targets in the Gulf on Sunday, with one hitting a freighter sailing towards…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[682,359,34,424,143,1137,39,271,101,272,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-107272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-drone-attack","9":"tag-gulf","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-irgc","12":"tag-maritime-security","13":"tag-middle-east-tensions","14":"tag-persian-gulf","15":"tag-qatar","16":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","17":"tag-united-arab-emirates","18":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116552360546889806","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}