Middle East on the brink as US and Iran unleash fresh strikes

Armed Yemeni supporters of the Iran-backed Houthi movement brandish their weapons during a protest against US strikes on Iran in Sanaa on July 10, 2026. Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on July 10 said the conflict with the United States would not end with Tehran’s surrender, after hostilities between the decades-old foes resumed this week with tit-for-tat attacks. The Middle East has been rocked by US and Iranian attacks of a scale unseen since an April ceasefire, as fighting over the strategic Strait of Hormuz threatened to derail efforts to permanently end the war.

As the US attacks on Iran continued on Monday, Tehran said it would stop complying with a framework agreement to halt the fighting if Washington failed to meet its commitments. It also responded with attacks of its own targeting Gulf nations, with the powerful Revolutionary Guards announcing new strikes on Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Oman. “There is no doubt that this document is in crisis,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said of the June memorandum of understanding.

“Each time that the other party has failed to meet its obligations, we did not uphold ours,” he added. “We will continue to act in this manner.” He nonetheless added that Tehran was continuing talks with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman in an effort to prevent any further escalation. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had completed their latest barrage, which began overnight, on dozens of Iranian targets.

[paywall]

US aircraft, naval vessels and drones hit “dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported fresh blasts of unknown origin in the south around midday on Monday, adding that they “appear to be coming from the West Coast of Bandar Abbas”. The United States and Iran have launched their biggest military exchanges since the April ceasefire, raising fears of a wider Middle East conflict centred on the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

[/paywall]