A fragile, two-week-old interim peace agreement between the United States and Iran has collapsed into open warfare, triggering direct Iranian missile and drone strikes against U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain early Sunday.
The sudden escalation began roughly an hour after U.S. President Donald Trump posted an ultimatum on social media, warning that Washington may be “forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” and threatening that the Islamic Republic “will no longer exist.” Following the post, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unleashed a heavy barrage of missiles and drones targeting the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
The IRGC stated the operations were direct retaliation for a second consecutive wave of U.S. airstrikes against Iranian coastal positions. According to U.S. Central Command, those American strikes were ordered after Iranian forces breached the ceasefire by hitting an oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The regional fallout has quickly spread beyond the Gulf. In southern Lebanon—a theater Tehran previously called critical to its peace framework with Washington—Israel confirmed it has intensified strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. The IRGC has since warned that all diplomatic processes are at a complete halt and that American bases in the region will “experience hell in the coming days,” effectively freezing the 14-point peace roadmap brokered just last week in Switzerland by Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
