Middle East crisis live: US launches new wave of strikes on Iran; Tehran says attacks render diplomacy ‘futile’

Iran has sought to establish a permanent system for collecting fees in the strait of Hormuz and warned vessels not to sail without its authorisation

One person has been killed and four wounded in a US strike on a water pumping station in Iran’s mahshahr, Iranian state media Irna news is reporting.

Oil prices opened sharply higher on Monday after the United States launched a wave of attacks on Iran and as Tehran announced it would close the strait of Hormuz.

A barrel of international benchmark Brent crude for September delivery rose 3.75% to $78.86 at around 2210 GMT on Sunday.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 3.65% to $74.02 per barrel for August delivery.

Strikes over the weekend have had wider regional implications.

Qatar, which has previously ​said it would not act as a mediator so long ​as it was under attack, said three people, including a child, had been injured by falling shrapnel. It said Iran was “fully legally responsible” for the attack.

The UAE said it detected missile threats outside its borders, while Bahrain said it intercepted several Iranian aerial attacks, Jordan reported missile strikes and Oman reported being targeted with drones. Kuwait’s army later reported damage from strikes, and said an attack on an oil drilling platform injured a worker.

Oman said it had summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest over drone attacks in two regions and the US embassy in Oman told its nationals in Duqm and Musandam to shelter in place.

Iran’s foreign ministry has condemned “aggressive” US attacks against Iran.

In a statement, the ministry also said talks between Iran and Oman on Saturday in Muscat — focused on arrangements for managing the strait and transit ‌routes — were unable to reach a result because of “overt and covert” US pressure on Oman.

In the past week, Trump has said he considers the ceasefire over, while leaving the door open to more talks.

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, posted on X on Sunday.

double quotation markThe era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”

The renewed fighting followed an Iranian attack early Sunday on a commercial ship in the strait of Hormuz, whose crew was forced to abandon it after it went up in flames.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said after the incident that “the Strait of Hormuz will be closed until further notice and until the end of American interventions in this region,” according to state news agency IRNA.

CENTCOM countered on X that the strait was “open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit.”

It said US forces were “positioned and prepared to ensure” freedom of navigation, adding: “Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing.”

Control of the waterway has become key leverage for Iran, with an adviser to the country’s supreme leader on Sunday saying it was more important than “dozens of atomic bombs”.

The latest salvo by US forces began at 2100 GMT on Sunday, Central Command (CENCTOM) said on X, after earlier announcing approximately 140 strikes the previous night.

On Sunday evening, Iranian state media reported at least 10 “enemy projectiles” hitting Qeshm Island, which sits on the strait of Hormuz.

It also reported strikes on the island of Farur, to the east of Qeshm in the Gulf, that it said killed a telecommunications worker and wounded two others.

Shortly after, Kuwait said three of its land border posts in the north were damaged in an attack, and that an offshore drilling platform “was targeted by a hostile drone,” with one person injured.

Tehran said it had targeted two ships in Hormuz early Sunday, including the one that caught fire. Iran’s Guards said they also hit Oman, which has rarely been targeted.

The US and Iran have again exchanged heavy missile and drone assaults, with Tehran targeting US facilities in states across the Gulf and saying it had again closed the vital strait of Hormuz.

The US military ⁠began launching more strikes against Iran at 5 pm ET on Sunday, US Central Command said in a statement, “to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait of Hormuz.”

In a brief phone interview with Reuters on Sunday afternoon, Trump referred to this weekend’s US strikes on Iran. “We’re beating ⁠them up,” he said.

Iran’s latest barrage marked an escalation in pace and range, extending as far as Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks that had not come under attack since April. The United Arab Emirates, which had not been targeted since early May, said its air defenses had engaged missiles and drones from Iran.

The renewed violence casts further doubt ​on the future of an interim US-Iranian agreement signed last month that aimed to reopen the strait and ‌end the war after a further 60 days of negotiations.

Iran said early on Monday that the latest attacks had “rendered futile” all the diplomatic efforts of the last few months.

“The US regime has also caused the return of insecurity in the strait of Hormuz and disruption of international commercial shipping by openly interfering in the process of Iran implementing the necessary arrangements in the strait of Hormuz,” a foreign ministry statement said.