Middle East crisis live: US launches new wave of strikes on Iran; Tehran says attacks render diplomacy ‘futile’
Key events
Opening summary
The US and Iran have again exchanged heavy missile and drone assaults, with Tehran targeting US facilities in states across the Gulf and saying it had again closed the vital strait of Hormuz.
The US military began launching more strikes against Iran at 5 pm ET on Sunday, US Central Command said in a statement, “to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait of Hormuz.”
In a brief phone interview with Reuters on Sunday afternoon, Trump referred to this weekend’s US strikes on Iran. “We’re beating them up,” he said.
Iran’s latest barrage marked an escalation in pace and range, extending as far as Qatar, a mediator in ceasefire talks that had not come under attack since April. The United Arab Emirates, which had not been targeted since early May, said its air defenses had engaged missiles and drones from Iran.
The renewed violence casts further doubt on the future of an interim US-Iranian agreement signed last month that aimed to reopen the strait and end the war after a further 60 days of negotiations.
Iran said early on Monday that the latest attacks had “rendered futile” all the diplomatic efforts of the last few months.
“The US regime has also caused the return of insecurity in the strait of Hormuz and disruption of international commercial shipping by openly interfering in the process of Iran implementing the necessary arrangements in the strait of Hormuz,” a foreign ministry statement said.
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