DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Wednesday, hours after it revoked a license authorizing the sale of Iranian oil in retaliation for what it said were Tehran’s attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran hit back with strikes on Bahrain and Kuwait.
The crossfire raised the risk that an interim agreement to halt fighting in the war could break down and drag the Middle East again into a wider conflict. It also threatened efforts to resume fuel shipments in the strait that are crucial to the global economy, and oil prices rose.
The attacks on shipping and the resulting strikes came during the dayslong funeral for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed Feb. 28 in the war’s first moments. The funeral, which ends Thursday, was supposed to be a period of lower tensions — though mourners have repeatedly called for the killings of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Negotiations to reach a final deal had been due to start after Khamenei’s burial and focus on the toughest matters, including fully reopening the strait and rolling back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. But the new attacks throw that into question, though neither country immediately signaled they’d walk away from the negotiating table.
“The era of bullying and extortion is over,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X. “It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”
Overnight US strikes target Iran
The U.S. military’s Central Command said American forces launched strikes “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.”
It said it hit Iranian targets including air defense systems, radars and over 60 small boats used by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Those boats have been key to threatening ships in the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war. Iran’s ability to bring shipping in the waterway to a near halt during the war proved its greatest strategic advantage as rising prices for energy supplies, fertilizer and food put pressure on the U.S. to make a deal. On Wednesday, the price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose.
The U.S. military remains “prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed,” it added, saying this round of attacks had ended.
Iranian state media reported explosions in several locations, including in Bandar Mahshahr, where a Guard member was killed. It also reported attacks on Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear power plant complex.
On Wednesday morning, both Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait, home to U.S. Army forces, sounded missile alerts. The Guard issued a statement acknowledging targeting U.S. military installations in both countries.
A similar spate of Iranian attacks on shipping and U.S. retaliatory strikes occurred late last month — which similarly drew Iranian attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait. Wednesday’s strikes came as Trump was in Turkey for a summit of the NATO military alliance.
Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomat in the United Arab Emirates, called Iran’s attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait “a clear indicator that Tehran remains incapable of committing to the requirements of de-escalation and turning the page on war.”
US revokes the license for the sale of Iranian oil
Before the strikes, the U.S. revoked a license that authorized the sale of Iranian oil as part of the interim deal. That paused U.S. sanctions and allowed Iran to conduct oil sales openly for U.S. dollars for the first time in years. Iran long had been suspected of selling sanctioned crude at below-market prices to China.
The decision came after the strikes on shipping. One tanker was off the coast of Oman when it was hit and caught fire, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. Iranian state television said the tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault.
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said the tanker was carrying Qatari natural gas and called the strike an “unacceptable attack” on international navigation and global energy security. He said Qatar, which has been a key mediator alongside Pakistan in the talks, holds Iran “fully legally responsible.”
The other two ships sustained some damage, but no one was injured, and both continued on their way, the U.K. agency said.
Iran and the United States agreed as part of the interim deal to allow ships to pass through the strait without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran has insisted it must control the vessels’ routes and vowed to later charge fees for passage. That would upend decades of practice in the waterway. The ships attacked Tuesday all appeared to be using a route close to Oman’s shore, rather than one ordered by Tehran.
The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to Iran charging for passage through the strait.
Mourners attend Khamenei’s funeral services in Iraq
Funeral ceremonies for Khamenei were held Wednesday in the Iraqi city of Najaf. Attending the services are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and other Iranian as well as Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Ali Falah al-Zaidi. There will be funeral prayers later at the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala as well.
Khamenei’s son, Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has yet to make an appearance at the ceremonies, which began Saturday in Tehran. He is believed to be in hiding after reportedly being wounded in the airstrike that killed his father.
Khamenei’s body will then be returned to Iran to be buried Thursday at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace.
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Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Najaf, Iraq, contributed to this report.