AP
Cairo
US President Donald Trump threatened more strikes on Iran as the United States presses for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hours later on Saturday, Kuwait said it responded to a new round of drone attacks from Iran while a tanker was struck in the strategic waterway.
Meanwhile, Israel carried out heavy strikes on the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed to disarm.
Important developments in the Middle East took place. Speaking to reporters Friday during a meeting with members of his Cabinet at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, Trump said “we just want to win” in Iran and signalled that he expected US military action to continue for some time.
He said the US will hit Iran “very hard” until they can’t take it anymore.
Later that day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed the US administration’s frustration anew, charging that Tehran last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the US on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers.”
“President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behavior to occur,” Leavitt said in a statement on Friday evening. “Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way.”
Kuwait’s military said Saturday that its forces were responding to drone attacks, which were part of Iran’s assaults on the country.
The British Navy said Saturday that a tanker was struck and a separate explosion hit close to a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. No casualties were reported in either incident, it said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organisation said an unknown projectile hit the vessel on Friday 11 nautical miles northeast of Lima, Oman. The attack damaged the vessel’s engine room.
The group said that on Saturday a large splash and an explosion were reported close to another tanker while it was sailing 21 nautical miles northwest of Khasab city.
Houthi rebels forced eight Saudi ships to reroute from the Bab el-Mandeb strait after the Iranian-backed rebels announced a blockade on Saudi shipping in the chokepoint. Brig Gen Yahya Saree, the military spokesman for the Houthis, said in a statement Friday that the vessels changed route to the Cape of Good Hope around Africa to avert the blockade.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli forces set off explosions Friday to destroy an underground tunnel network under the Crusader-built Beaufort Castle that Israel says had been used by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants as a command centre. The 12th-century castle, also known as Al-Shaqif, was seized by Israeli forces in May.
It was recently added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List over Israel’s objections.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said the Israeli operation sent “negative messages” ahead of upcoming talks in Rome. Israeli and Lebanese negotiating teams are set to meet again there to continue hammering out a plan under which Israel would withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.
An Israeli army officer was moderately wounded during operational activity in southern Lebanon overnight into Saturday, Israel’s military said. It was not immediately clear how the officer was wounded. There was no immediate comment from Lebanese authorities or Hezbollah.
