One-sided deals are OVER: Iran’s warning to US amid escalating conflict

The developments came after the US carried out a third round of strikes on radar, missile and drone sites in southern Iran.

Dubai: Iran on Sunday, July 12, claimed to have hit the command-and-control centre and hangars housing MQ-9 drones of Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base.

The damage was limited to minor property losses, reported Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency reported.

The developments came after the US carried out a third round of strikes on radar, missile and drone sites in southern Iran.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency cited the governor of Qeshm island, located near the strait, as saying that under a dozen projectiles had been fired at military targets there, with no casualties. There was no immediate comment by the US military. The largest island in the Persian Gulf is home to about 150,000 people.

The US military’s Central Command on Sunday said it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites. It said the attacks, heavier than in recent days, would weaken Iran’s ability to threaten shipping.

“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Semi-official Iranian news agencies reported that a navy officer was killed. Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting US military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for travelling through it.

“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and a main negotiator, wrote. “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”

The US military and Trump asserted that the strait remained open Sunday. Iran said it was closed until calm is restored, and Tehran would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.

Oman summons Iranian envoy to protest attack

Missile alerts sounded across several Gulf Arab countries

Qatar’s military said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, with explosions heard in the neighboring United Arab Emirates. Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar’s Interior Ministry said, giving no further details on their condition.

Missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. Kuwait’s military also said it was intercepting incoming fire.

A day after Oman and Iran held talks on the strait, the Omani state news agency said drones struck sites in an area that sits on the waterway.

Oman summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the strikes, the first such move since the war began, calling Iran’s acts “irresponsible.”

Three Iranian missiles struck areas across Jordan, causing minor damage but no injuries, Jordan’s state news agency reported.

Sirens also sounded in the UAE, but the government said missiles did not cross into its territory.

The strait sits in both Iran and Oman’s territorial waters. Oman on Saturday said it and Iran agreed to continue discussing the strait “at the technical and political levels.” Iran offered no statement about the strait being open to all, something sought by the Trump administration.

Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach an agreement. A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss those talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides.

Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, on Saturday vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.

Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state television.

(With inputs from PTI)