US President Donald Trump threatened more strikes on Iran as the United States presses for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hours later on Saturday, Kuwait said it responded to a new round of drone attacks from Iran while a tanker was struck in the strategic waterway.
Meanwhile, Israel heavily struck the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to disarm.
Here are the most important developments in the Middle East today:
Speaking to reporters Friday during a meeting with members of his Cabinet at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, Trump said “we just want to win” in Iran and signaled that he expected US military action to continue for some time.
He said the US will hit Iran “very hard” until they can’t take it anymore.
Later that day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed the US administration’s frustration anew, charging that Tehran last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the US on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers.”
“President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behaviour to occur,” Leavitt said in a statement on Friday evening. “Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way.”
Kuwait’s military said Saturday that its forces were responding to drone attacks, which were part of Iran’s assaults on the country.
In a statement, Maj. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, spokesman for Kuwait’s Defense Ministry, said the drones hit “a number of vital facilities,” including a government structure in the country’s north. He said there were no casualties.
The British Navy said Saturday that a tanker was struck and a separate explosion hit close to a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. No casualties were reported in either incident, it said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organisation said an unknown projectile hit the vessel on Friday 11 nautical miles northeast of Lima, Oman. The attack damaged the vessel’s engine room.
The group said that on Saturday a large splash and an explosion were reported close to another tanker while it was sailing 21 nautical miles northwest of Khasab city.
Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz without its authorisation as part of its ongoing conflict with the US.
