Trump tells Iran that power plants, bridges will be targeted if no deal is made – Middle East crisis live

An Indian ⁠national ⁠who went missing ​after an attack ⁠on commercial vessel ⁠GFS ​Galaxy ‌off the coast ‌of Oman ‌is dead, his father-in-law said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Of ‌the 11 Indians ​on board, 10 were ⁠rescued, the Indian foreign ​ministry said ​on ​Sunday.

US Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the advancement of a must-pass defense bill in protest of Donald Trump’s resumption of hostilities with Iran, writes the Guardian’s Chris Stein.

The hold up of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) comes amid the fiercest exchange in fire between the countries in weeks, which has amplified frustration among Democrats that the US remains involved in the conflict despite the passage last month of a war powers resolution intended to force a ceasefire.

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In a flare-up that entered the fifth day, the US Central Command (Centcom) said it struck dozens of Iranian military targets near the strait and elsewhere along the country’s coast to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews”.

Iranian state media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the island of Qeshm and on Bandar Imam Khomeini.

Soon after the strikes earlier on Wednesday, sirens rang out in Bahrain, while Kuwait and Jordan reported intercepting drones and missiles fired from Iran.

State news agency IRNA reported that Iranian forces launched a drone attack on a military base in Jordan that hosts American warplanes, while the Guards had hit US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards threatened earlier on Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the US blockade.

The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.

When US president Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade Monday, he also said he would impose a 20% fee on ships passing through the strait. But he dropped the plan to collect fees hours before resuming the blockade, citing requests from allies in the Persian Gulf.

Both US and Iran launched attacks as blockade reimposed.

Our full report of the all the latest is here:

A US strike hit a wheat storage silo in Iran’s Hoveyzeh early on Wednesday, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East, with retaliatory strikes between the US and Iran continuing for a fourth day straight, despite an interim agreement intended to provide space to negotiate a lasting peace.

Instead, the US has now reimposed a naval blockade on the strait of Hormuz and Donald Trump has said that US strikes will target Iran’s power plants and bridges next week if Tehran does not agree to a deal.

Iran has responded by attacking US allies in the region.

Here is the latest:

• In an interview with Fox News Trump said US attacks would continue to increase in severity until a deal was reached. “We’re going to knock out all their power plants,” he said, “We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”

• US Central Command (Centcom) said the latest strikes were aimed at “degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping” in the strait, the key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas where Tehran has repeatedly carried out attacks on civilian vessels.

• Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the US decision to renew the blockade “has, in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum”. Days of retaliatory strikes continue to push the region back into all-out war.

• Iran responded to US strikes on Wednesday by targeting American allies including Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had targeted what ⁠it described ⁠as command-and-control, logistics, ​fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to ⁠the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. Jordan’s army said early Wednesday that its air defences intercepted and shot down three ballistic missiles that entered its airspace.

• Since last week, renewed US attacks have killed at least 28 people in Iran, according to a tally based on Iranian media and official announcements.