New Delhi, May 28: The US again escalated tensions in the West Asian region as it carried out fresh attacks on Iran which retaliated by hitting American military assets in the neighbouring Kuwait.
Earlier this morning, the US carried out, what it called, ‘defensive strikes’, hitting an alleged drone-launch facility of Iran in Bandar Abbas.
The US forces also claimed to have shot down four Iranian drones in the Strait of Hormuz.
Soon after, Iranian military said it attacked US military base in Kuwait and warned that “aggression would not go unpunished”.
The US strikes came hours after President Donald Trump said Iran is “negotiating on fumes”.
He also insisted that the midterm elections in the US in November won’t make him rush into a deal to end the nearly three-month-old conflict that’s caused immense economic problems around the world, particularly due to the energy flow disruptions.
Trump has been desperately seeking reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, over which Iran has put a stronghold after the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.
The Strait is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about a fifth of the global oil and natural gas transits.
On the ongoing indirect negotiations with Iran to end the war, Trump acknowledged there’s still work to do.
“They (Iran) want very much to make a deal.. So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be — either that or we’ll have to just finish the job,” the US president said.
