The United States military struck Iranian radar and drone command sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island over the weekend, while Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired back at an air base it says was used to launch those attacks. Kuwait also reported missile and drone strikes on its territory, with its military saying it was actively intercepting incoming fire using air-defence systems. The exchange represents the third major violation of a ceasefire agreed in April between the two sides.
US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement early Monday that its fighter jets carried out "self-defence strikes" on Iranian air defences, a ground control station, and two kamikaze drones it described as posing "a clear threat to ships transiting through regional waters". The operation took place on Saturday and Sunday and was triggered, Centcom said, by Iran's shootdown of a US MQ-1 Predator drone that was flying over what Washington described as international waters. Iran's IRGC said the drone had entered Iranian territorial waters before being downed. The IRGC said its retaliatory strike hit the air base from which the US attacks were launched and destroyed its targets with precision, adding that any further US aggression would be met with a "completely different" response.
Kuwait, a small Gulf state bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia, reported what its military called "hostile" missile and drone attacks, without identifying the source. Tehran had previously struck a Kuwaiti base in retaliation for earlier US operations, a pattern that points to Iran widening its response beyond direct US-Iranian exchanges.
The flare-up comes at a delicate moment in diplomacy. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Iran "really wants to make a deal", even as the two sides remain far apart on key issues including the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian oil revenues, and the status of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, warned that Tehran would not accept any deal that did not guarantee Iranian rights, and said the US "cannot be trusted". Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, confirmed that the exchange of messages with Washington was continuing.
The Strait of Hormuz — the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which roughly one-fifth of globally traded oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows — remains effectively blocked, keeping upward pressure on energy prices. Brent crude rose about 2% to over $93 a barrel on Monday. Analysts warn that even without either side seeking a full return to war, the risk of unintended escalation is growing. "The greatest danger may not be a deliberate decision to go to war, but a gradual escalation driven by recurring incidents in an increasingly volatile environment," said Danny Citrinowicz, a former head of an Iran branch in Israeli military intelligence and now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.