Iran launched a drone attack on the Gulf Arab country of Bahrain on Sunday for the second time in days, as peace talks between the United States and Iran have faltered.
The Bahraini Defense Ministry said the country’s armed forces had intercepted several “Iranian aerial threats” before they struck their targets. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry also issued two alerts to residents on Sunday morning advising them to seek shelter.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed that Iranian forces had targeted a radar system at a Bahraini air base.
Bahrain hosts a major U.S. military base. The American military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday’s attack, which came two days after U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said it had shot down two drones fired by Iran toward Bahrain, without causing any injuries or damage.
The Revolutionary Guards said that Friday’s attack — which appeared to be the first time that Iran had targeted Bahrain since September — was retaliation for a previous American strike on a telecommunications tower in Iran.
After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, Iran launched thousands of retaliatory missile and drone attacks at Gulf Arab countries that host American military installations. Those attacks had largely petered out as the two sides entered a stalemate.
The conflict has been deadlocked for months with few signs of progress toward a durable peace agreement between the United States and Iran. In the meantime, American and Israeli military officials have drawn up plans for renewed strikes that would likely target energy infrastructure and other sites vital to the Iranian economy according to U.S. officials and other people briefed on the deliberations.
And in recent weeks, both sides have again exchanged fire around the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway in the Persian Gulf. The attacks have included sporadic U.S. bombing along Iran’s southern coast.
On Sunday, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, said that Iran would continue to respond to any military aggression by the United States or others.
Asked in a news conference in Tehran whether the Iranian attack in Bahrain signified a change to the country’s approach, and whether Iran was still awaiting an official American response in the negotiations, Mr. Baghaei said that Iran was “not waiting for anyone” and was focused on safeguarding its security.
President Trump has zigzagged over whether or not he might order a return to full-blown war. The initial campaign failed to compel Iran to abandon its nuclear program but did ensnarl global energy markets, which contributed to a resounding defeat for the Republican Party in the recent midterm elections.
It is far from clear whether a new U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran could force Tehran to make new concessions. The country has said it has rebuilt its military capabilities during the truce, and U.S. and Israeli officials will also have to consider whether they are willing or able to contend with Iranian missile and drone attacks across the Middle East, given their depleted stores of aerial interceptors.
Mediators from Qatar and Pakistan have shuttled to Tehran in recent weeks in an effort to avert a return to all-out war. Vice President JD Vance had backed the talks, as well as publicly blaming the war for Republican losses in the midterm elections.
Mr. Trump has now pulled Mr. Vance from the negotiations, writing on social media on Thursday that the United States does not need a deal with Iran.
“Those days,” he said, “have long since passed.”
