Iran war live: Air raid sirens in Bahrain, Kuwait as US bombs Sirik, Qeshm
The US has bombed Iran for a second day, hitting the city of Sirik, Bandar-e Lengeh and Qeshm Island, following a drone attack on a commercial vessel near the Strait of Hormuz.
Air raid sirens blare in Bahrain as Kuwait’s military says its air defences are responding to “hostile missile and drone threats”.
Iran says US ‘violating MoU by trying to set a different corridor’ in Strait of Hormuz
Abas Aslani, a senior Research Fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies, says the US and Iran are both trying to assert their vision for what a new transit system for the Strait of Hormuz should look like.
“Tehran believes that the US is violating the terms of the MoU by trying to determine a different corridor for the transit of the vessels and tankers that were supposed to go through a determined pathway,” he told Al Jazeera from Tehran.
He noted Iran has been holding talks with Oman “in order to set the new arrangements” and was planning to talk to regional countries, too.
“But the US wants now to pressure regional countries and to use force to pressure Iran in order to change the current status quo in the Strait of Hormuz, and bring it back to the pre-war situation, and Iran is insisting that this cannot return to the previous status quo [and that] a new reality and a new strait has been born,” Aslani said.
“So that’s why we are seeing that the two sides are flexing muscles in relation to the strategic assets for Iran. This is very significant because abandoning such a strategic leverage could pose existential risks for the country,” he added.
US military says it conducted strikes on 10 Iranian ‘military targets’
CENTCOM says the strikes were carried out by US fighter jets “at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz”.
It also shared a grainy, black-and-white video on social media showing some of the apparent attacks.
As we just reported, Iran’s IRGC said the US bombed five coastal locations in the country in its latest round of attacks.
