US-Iran escalation fears mount

The United States struck bridges and an airport in Iran yesterday and Tehran responded by hitting a power and desalination plant in Kuwait, as the warring foes risked further escalation by expanding their targets to include infrastructure.

In the contested Strait of Hormuz, US Marines boarded a tanker and another ship was reported to have been hit by a projectile.

Another vessel was boarded by armed men off Yemen, though one maritime security source said the incident appeared to be an act of Somali piracy rather than linked to the Iran conflict.

Washington and Tehran have been testing the limits of escalation since their ceasefire agreement collapsed last week. US officials have said attacks on southern Iran are designed in part to give Trump options.

Such moves risk provoking Iran to escalate in turn by hitting the vital infrastructure of vulnerable neighbouring Arab states, or having its allies in Yemen further disrupt global energy supplies by attacking shipping from the Red Sea.

In the latest strikes, the US military’s Central Command included “military logistics infrastructure” in the list of targets it said it had hit, the first time it has mentioned infrastructure in more than a week.

Iranian state media said at least five bridges had been struck in the south. Seven people were killed in attacks on bridges in the southern port of Bandar Khamir, where the train station was also hit. An airport was reported hit further east and away from the coast in Iranshahr, in a province bordering Pakistan.

In response, Iran announced attacks on Gulf countries that host US airbases, including Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, reports Reuters.

Authorities in Kuwait said one of the country’s power generation and water desalination stations had been hit in an Iranian attack, causing damage to facilities, a fire and the disruption of a large number of electricity generation units.

Iran said it had struck a US radar station in Oman. Explosions were heard in the Qatari capital Doha, where the interior ministry said a child was wounded by shrapnel. Iran also said it fired at Syria, apparently for the first time in the war, targeting what it described as a US special forces base in Tanf.

The escalation pushed the benchmark price of Brent crude up by another 2 percent to around $86 LCOc1, its highest level since an interim agreement was reached a month ago to end the war.

The surge in energy prices generated by the conflict has created pressure on Trump to end the war quickly. In a televised speech on Thursday night mainly about election security, Trump said the United States was “winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labour very, very shortly.”

Meanwhile, China’s and Pakistan’s foreign ministers called on the United States and Iran to end fighting and return to the negotiating table, after meeting in Shanghai.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar jointly “expressed concern over the deterioration of the current situation, calling on the involved parties to immediately cease hostilities… (and) return to dialogue”, the statement by Beijing’s foreign ministry said.