The Revolutionary Guard threatened that US bases in the area would "go through hell", and Trump responded that Iran may no longer exist. Two topics continue to be the bone of contention that hinders peace.
US bases in the Persian Gulf "go through hell" in the coming days, the Revolutionary Guards warned, after Bahrain and Kuwait confirmed that they had been targeted.
At the same time, Israel attacked Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, after only two days ago signing a framework agreement with Lebanon and the United States for a ceasefire and disarmament of Hezbollah.
Military action in Lebanon continues to put a spoke in the wheel of peace talks, and Iran insists that access to the Strait of Hormuz will only be possible after the explicit permission of the Islamic Republic.
Another exchange of blows over the Strait of Hormuz
Less than two weeks after a temporary truce was reached between the United States and Iran, it has been repeatedly violated in recent days. First, Iran hit a tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz, to which Washington responded with a series of strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic. A response to US bases in the region followed, and Donald Trump threatened that if the war was renewed, Iran "will no longer exist".
The Revolutionary Guard announced that it would not allow ships to pass through the strait, through which 20% of the world's oil and gas trade was carried out until recently, without Iran's permission. Currently, traffic there is stronger than it was in recent months, when there was an active military conflict, but it is far below the levels before February 28, when Israel and the US began striking targets in Iran, and the regime in Tehran closed the strait.
Lebanon - the apple of discord
At the same time, although the US, Israel and Lebanon officially signed a trilateral framework agreement, shelling by the Israeli army again occurred in southern Lebanon, and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah rejected the deal. The Israeli army currently controls about a fifth of its northern neighbor's territory, and Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced that this occupation will continue "as long as necessary".
After months of insisting that the situation in Lebanon was a separate issue from reaching a truce with Iran, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance eventually gave in to Tehran's demands that the end of the conflict include an end to Israeli strikes on targets in southern Lebanon. However, the authorities in Beirut are not participating in the negotiations, which, according to an expert, further weakens their position vis-à-vis Hezbollah, which controls large parts of the country. Attempts to achieve an effective ceasefire have so far hit a snag, and tensions between the US and Israel on the issue are growing.
The impossibility of finding a way out of the situation in Lebanon is clearly irritating the US president as well. "Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon who are causing trouble", Donald Trump recently wrote on social media. "If they do not, we will strike Iran again very hard, just like we did last week, only harder!!!"