Iran struck Qatar and the UAE for the first time in months and again declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. US forces hit 300+ Iranian targets over three nights. The ceasefire is over, Trump said.
Iranian and US forces exchanged heavy missile and drone strikes over the weekend in a sharp escalation of their four-month conflict. Tehran extended attacks to Gulf states that had largely been spared for months and again declared the Strait of Hormuz closed to shipping.
Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks, and the United Arab Emirates were both targeted for the first time in months, alongside renewed strikes on Jordan, Kuwait and Oman. Qatar said three people, including a child, were injured by falling shrapnel and held Iran fully responsible. Kuwait reported damage from strikes and an injury at an oil drilling platform. Bahrain said it intercepted several aerial attacks. Oman reported drone strikes in two regions.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had struck a command centre and drone hangars in Jordan, a radar site and rocket launchers in Kuwait, carrier support infrastructure in Oman and a jet maintenance facility in Qatar. Iranian state media reported explosions in several port cities and the death of an army officer.
The US said its forces had struck more than 300 Iranian military targets over three nights, including 140 on Saturday alone, aimed at degrading Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the strait. Washington maintained that traffic continued to flow through an expanded southern route near Oman despite what it called Iranian "aggression, harassment, threats and arbitrary declarations."
An Indian crew member was reported missing after Iran struck the container vessel GFS Galaxy off Oman's coast. Omani authorities said the remaining 23 crew were rescued. Qatar advised all vessels, including leisure and fishing boats, to suspend activity in its waters.
The widening of Iranian strikes to Qatar and the UAE signals a material escalation that traders will read as a fresh supply-risk premium event rather than a contained flare-up, several Gulf-based oil traders said. With Tehran again declaring the Strait of Hormuz closed and warning vessels against unauthorised transit, benchmark crude prices face renewed upward pressure alongside freight and war-risk insurance rates, even as the US insists traffic is still flowing via a southern route.
The revocation of the licence permitting Iranian crude sales adds a further bullish input for prices by tightening available barrels, the traders said. Political sensitivity around gasoline costs ahead of the US midterms raises the odds of further US engagement to keep the southern corridor open, which could cap some of the upside.
The renewed violence casts fresh doubt on an interim agreement reached last month that had aimed to reopen the strait and end the war following a further 60 days of talks. President Donald Trump said this week he now considers the ceasefire over, though he has left the door open to further negotiations. Talks between Iranian and Omani officials continued in Muscat over the weekend.
Adding to the uncertainty, Iran's newly installed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued his first public statement since the funeral of his father and predecessor, pledging vengeance for his death in the strike that opened the war in February. Khamenei, who reportedly suffered facial disfigurement in the attack, has not been seen publicly since taking the role in March. His continued absence from view is fuelling questions in Iran over the new leadership's stability at a moment of intensifying conflict, analysts said.
An Indian crew member was reported missing after Iran struck the container vessel GFS Galaxy off Oman's coast. Omani authorities said the remaining 23 crew were rescued. Qatar advised all vessels, including leisure and fishing boats, to suspend activity in its waters.
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