Infrastructure targeted as regional tensions escalate and oil prices climb
Jana Choukeir And Enas Alashray
Dubai/Cairo: The US struck bridges in Iran, and Tehran responded by striking an energy and desalination plant in Kuwait; because both sides risked further escalating tensions by expanding their targets to include infrastructure.
At sea, where renewed conflict has again cut off energy supplies from the Gulf, US Marines board a tanker near the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the Iranian media, citing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, two oil tankers exploded and caught fire after passing the mined route in the south of the Bosphorus. The US military denied this claim, saying, “Like most claims of the Revolutionary Guard, this is false.”
Gunmen seized another ship off the coast of Yemen, raising security concerns at the mouth of the Red Sea, the Middle East’s other major transit point for oil shipments.
Iranian state television quoted the Revolutionary Guard as saying that it would not be possible to export chemical fertilizers or even “a single drop of oil and gas” from the region until the US’s “aggression” ends.
Washington and Tehran have been testing the limits of escalation since the collapse of a ceasefire agreement last week, raising the possibility of a return to all-out war.
Benchmark Brent crude oil prices rose 3 percent on Friday (US time) following the bullish news, on track for a third consecutive weekly rise, piling political pressure on US President Donald Trump ahead of congressional elections in November.
Trump has threatened to launch broad-based air strikes on Iran’s infrastructure and has also refused to rule out a ground attack on Iran’s coast or islands. U.S. officials have said the attacks on southern Iran were designed in part to give Trump options.
Such moves carry the risk that Iran could escalate tensions by striking the vital infrastructure of vulnerable Gulf states, or that its allies in Yemen could attack ships coming from the Red Sea, further disrupting global energy supplies.
Mohsen Rezaei, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, warned on Friday against any US escalation or attempt to seize Iranian territory.
“If the US attacks continue for a few more days, we will move to the phase of full-scale offensive operations,” Rezaei, a former senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard, told state television.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is concerned about escalating tensions, particularly “attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran and across the region,” his spokesman said.
The US military’s Central Command had previously said its targets included “military logistics infrastructure”, marking the first time it had mentioned infrastructure in more than a week.
In the latest attacks, Central Command said Tehran had resumed attacks on Iran for a seventh consecutive night, at around 5am (AEST) on Saturday and 10.30pm on Friday.
The statement about X said, “The attacks were designed to continue weakening Iran’s military capabilities under the instructions of the Commander in Chief.”
Shortly thereafter, Iranian media reported that explosions were heard or attacks were carried out in Sirik, Ahvaz and Yazd. Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said there were no reports of casualties from enemy shells except for Yazd, a central city about 600 kilometers south of Tehran.
Iranian state media had previously said that at least five bridges were hit in the south. Seven people were reportedly killed and the train station was also hit in attacks on bridges in the southern port of Bandar Khamir. An airport was reported to have been hit further east and away from the coast in Iranshahr, in a province bordering Pakistan.
Videos verified by Reuters showed rubble, broken guardrails and a damaged vehicle on a collapsed bridge in Bandar Khamir. A fire was visible in a clip.
Iran has announced that it will launch an attack on Gulf countries that host US air bases, including Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, in addition to a US ship in the northern Indian Ocean. The Revolutionary Guard said it attacked a warehouse containing US drones in Bahrain and destroyed Bahrain’s main artificial intelligence center with ballistic missiles and drones.
Iran’s navy fired a coast-to-sea cruise missile at what it called a hostile US ship in the northern Indian Ocean, state news agency IRNA reported on Friday. The Iranian military said the missile launch caused “fear and panic” and forced the ship out of range of the Iranian navy.
Officials in Kuwait said that Iran’s attack hit one of the country’s electricity generation and water desalination stations, causing damage, fire and the failure of many electricity generation units.
Wealthy Arab Gulf states depend on plants that generate electricity and remove salt from seawater to make desert cities livable. Iran’s attack on a desalination plant in Kuwait on March 30 was seen as a major tension.
Last month’s interim agreement to end the war has collapsed since July 7, when Iran struck ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the United States responded with airstrikes. Iran has since announced it was closing the strait, and Washington has reimposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
Reuters
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