US military launches fresh strikes on Iran as Donald Trump threatens ‘much worse’ to come – Middle East crisis live

The US has renewed strikes on Iran for a second day running, triggering Iranian attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain ​in the latest escalation to derail efforts to end the war.

President Donald Trump said he believed an interim ceasefire with Iran to be “over”.

We are closing this blog for now, but here is a quick recap of the latest:

• The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote on X that the additional attacks against Iran were conducted to “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait. The US strikes rattled several cities along Iran’s southern coast and ⁠left some areas without power.

• Iran responded with a second day of attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, both home to US military bases, with sirens sounded in both countries. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said their response would extend to other US bases in the region if the US repeats its attacks.

• Kuwait’s defense ministry said it was intercepting missiles and drones, while Qatar briefly issued an “elevated security threat” alert before ​later giving the all-clear.

• Trump vowed that ‘much worse’ was to come. “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran,” he wrote on Truth Social, “If it happens again, it will get much worse!”.

• Asked before a Nato summit in Turkey on Wednesday whether the memorandum of understanding was over, Trump said: “It’s a very interesting ‌question. To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them.”

• Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, vowed that the strait of Hormuz would remain under Iranian management. “The Strait of Hormuz will be reopened only under Iranian arrangements, not through U.S. threats,” he wrote on X.

• The latest exchange of strikes appeared to dim hopes of turning a memorandum of understanding signed on 17 June into a permanent deal to end the war, which began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran on 28 February.

• The fresh strikes come as Iranians are preparing to bury their late supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his home town of Mashhad in North-east Iran on Thursday, after he was killed in US strikes this February. The Ayotallah’s burial follows a multi-day funeral ceremony that attracted millions of mourners across various cities in both Iran and Iraq.