Drones attack Iran’s neighbours as Tehran appears to test Donald Trump’s latest pause

DUBAI – Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq reported drone attacks on July 27, two days after the US abruptly suspended a two-week campaign of air strikes against Iran, as Tehran appeared to put President Donald Trump’s latest strategic U-turn to the test.

Saudi Arabia said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, some in its eastern province and others in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones had been launched from Iraq by Iran-backed militia, and it reserved the right to respond.

Separately, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen said they had targeted transit sites carrying oil to Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port of Yanbu, in retaliation for what it said were Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni air space.

Earlier, Jordan reported shooting down two drones, and Iraqi security sources reported a series of drone attacks on camps housing Iranian opposition Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. Officials did not identify the sources of the drones.

Jordan and northern Iraq were the locations where four US service members were killed during the two-week air campaign, which Trump suspended abruptly over the weekend after his top brass advised him that the strategy had run its course.

Iran has said it will pause its own attacks for as long as Trump’s self-imposed ceasefire continues. But it also said it was still in control of the contested Strait of Hormuz, and was not seeking to resume peace talks with the US.

In his latest strategic reversal over the weekend, which came with no prior announcement, Trump halted a campaign of 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing that had provoked Tehran to fire on US bases in response. 

The end of the US campaign sent oil prices tumbling. Brent crude, which had briefly ticked above US$100 a barrel last week for the first time since May, fell around 6.5 per cent on July 27 to just over US$90, having touched levels as low as US$87.55.

Trump’s decision to suspend the campaign reflected advice from his top brass that the bombing, aimed at breaking Iran’s grip on the strait, had reached the limits of what it could achieve, according to a US official and US media reports.

The US official told Reuters that military commanders had advised him that they were running out of targets. The official said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, had expressed concern over the depletion of air defence weapons used to protect American bases in the region.

Request for more talks ‘not in our DNA’, Iran spokesman says

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, said on July 26 that Trump had paused the campaign to allow room for negotiations.

Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other US officials have described Iran as “begging for a deal”.

But the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said in a televised press conference on July 27 that Iran had not asked to resume peace talks with the United States.

Messages were still being passed between the sides through mediators and Iran had not forsaken diplomacy, but “reports about Iran requesting negotiations with the US are fabricated”, Baghaei said, adding: “This is not in our DNA.”

Tehran also indicated that it was still in control of the world’s most important waterway for energy markets.

Iran state media say six ships turned back in strait

Several Iranian state media outlets carried the same report, citing an “informed source” as saying that Iran had turned around six “offending ships” on the morning of July 27 that had attempted to cross the strait without its permission. One of the vessels, the source said, was involved in “an accident”.

“As previously announced, the traffic route in the Strait of Hormuz is the route specified by Iran, and other routes are contaminated and have no way out,” the Iranian state media reports quoted the source as saying.

Trump launched his renewed bombing campaign to punish Iran after Tehran fired on ships using a route through the strait that has been promoted by the US, which has told vessels to sail close to the coast of Oman.

Iran says ships may pass only through a channel that runs closer to its own coast, which it controls and where it intends to impose transit fees.

The two weeks of renewed US bombing killed scores of people in Iran and destroyed bridges and tunnels across the south, as well as military targets. Four US service members were killed by Iran’s return fire against US bases in neighbouring Arab states.

Iran also struck civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries in what it said was retaliation for US strikes on civilian targets.

Last week, Iran’s Houthi allies threatened to extend the disruption to global oil supplies to a second major waterway by announcing a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry in the Red Sea, sending oil prices even higher.

The halt in the renewed US bombing campaign leaves no clear indication of what leverage Washington can exert to achieve Trump’s aim to break Iran’s grip on the strait.

Washington and Tehran reached an agreement in June on a framework for talks meant to take place by the end of August to resolve major issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme. But the sides have disputed the meaning of the memorandum’s language about the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington insisting it requires Tehran to allow free travel, while Iran says it grants it the authority to supervise transit.

Iran aims to formalise its control over the strait by reaching an agreement with Oman, which controls the opposite shore. A senior Omani delegation was in Tehran over the weekend discussing the future of the strait, and Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Baghaei said those talks went well.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war in February alongside Trump but has not participated in the US-Iranian negotiations to end it, is due to meet Trump in Washington early this week. REUTERS