President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he believed the ceasefire with Iran was “over”, after Iran attacked Kuwait and Bahrain with ballistic missiles and drones overnight, following U.S. strikes on Iran.
“To me, I think it’s over,” said Trump to reporters at the NATO summit in Ankara. “They’re scum, do you know what scum is? They’re scum, they’re sick people- they’re led by sick people. And they’re vicious, violent people, and if they had a nuclear weapon they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”
“There’s something wrong with them, they’re cuckoo,” said Trump of Tehran. He claimed that U.S. and Iranian negotiators “can talk, but I think they’d be wasting their time. They’re a bunch of lying guys”.
Kuwait’s defense ministry said it detected two ballistic missiles and 13 long range drones entering Kuwaiti airspace over the course of the Iranian attacks, with all successfully intercepted without damage to property or loss of life. Bahraini state media said Bahrain’s military intercepted incoming Iranian threats, but did not provide further details.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have attacked 85 U.S. military facilities in the region using ballistic missiles and long range drones, with a statement issued through the Tasnim news agency saying that U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait were among the sites attacked.
The Iranian strikes came after U.S. Central Command conducted a wave of strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks on three tankers carrying crude oil and liquefied natural gas in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. Central Command said it had struck over 80 Iranian targets, including “Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats”.
“The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation,” read a statement from Central Command announcing it had “completed” the wave of U.S. strikes. “CENTCOM forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed.”