Iran Strikes US Bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan
For the first time Tehran hit US bases across the Gulf states en masse: Kuwait intercepted 21 drones, Jordan downed eight missiles, while the United States pounded Bandar Abbas and disabled an Iranian tanker.
- Kuwait intercepted 4 cruise missiles and 21 drones launched from Iran.
- Jordan downed 8 Iranian missiles aimed at the al-Azraq air base.
- The United States disabled the Iranian tanker M/T Belma with Hellfire missiles near Kharg Island.
- Iran's health ministry reports at least 35 dead and more than 300 wounded.
The war between Iran and the United States crossed a line overnight that touches Serbia more directly than any diplomatic note: Iranian missiles and drones fell en masse on US bases in the Gulf states for the first time, and markets answered every fresh strike near the Strait of Hormuz with a jump in the price of oil, the commodity that every filling station and every factory in Serbia depends on. Tehran announced that it had targeted Patriot systems and radar stations in Kuwait and Bahrain, pushing the conflict beyond a bilateral duel and drawing in the Gulf monarchies that have spent decades cultivating the status of stable Western partners.
Gulf capitals under fire
Kuwait, according to official accounts, intercepted four cruise missiles and twenty-one drones launched from Iranian territory, while Jordan downed eight missiles aimed at the al-Azraq air base, one of the footholds US forces use for regional operations. Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, remained at the center of an Iranian campaign directed at air defenses, prompting Saudi and Emirati offices to reassess their own early-warning systems.
Washington did not wait. A new wave of American strikes hit Bandar Abbas and Greater Tunb island near Hormuz, and US forces used Hellfire missiles to disable the Iranian tanker M/T Belma as it tried to reach the oil terminal on Kharg Island, the hub through which Iran exports most of its crude. Iran’s health ministry said that at least thirty-five people had been killed and more than three hundred wounded since the new round of fighting began.
The escalation came less than a month after a fragile truce was extended on June 17, a deal that European chancelleries claimed would open a diplomatic channel toward more lasting calm. The EU High Representative had already warned that no agreement would hold without guarantees of free navigation through Hormuz, and it is precisely that strait that has again become the flashpoint where military moves and the price of energy collide.
Why does Hormuz set the price of fuel in Serbia?
A fifth of the world’s oil trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, so every attack on a tanker or terminal in that corridor raises the risk premium buyers pay, including the refineries that supply the Serbian market. For a landlocked country that imports most of its oil, a prolonged conflict in the Gulf means costlier transport, higher ship-insurance bills and pressure on the dinar through imported inflation, consequences felt at the register, not only in the news out of Tehran.
The geopolitical reality is that the balance in the Middle East does not collapse suddenly but in waves, and each wave leaves the region closer to a point of no return. Serbian diplomacy, which traditionally maintains ties with both Washington and the Gulf states, will face the question of how long it can stay on the sidelines while the transatlantic bond and energy security are tested in a single move.
Will Serbia prepare its fuel reserves and budget in time for a scenario in which the Middle East war drags on for months?
