US and Saudis hit back at Iraqi pro-Iran militias, as Iran renews attacks on US forces in Jordan

The US and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday launched deadly strikes on Tehran-backed militias in Iraq, blaming them for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities, as Iran fired missiles at US troops in Jordan in the first such attack reported since the fighting paused over the weekend.

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official told Reuters Tehran had ruled out an Omani proposal for regional joint management of the Strait of Hormuz, accusing the US and Saudi Arabia of pressuring the sultanate to advance “unrealistic plans” with no chance of success. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also reasserted its control of the key waterway, saying its forces struck three oil tankers there that had ignored warnings.

Back-and-forth attacks in recent days have ended a brief pause in the fighting, after US President Donald Trump abruptly called off a two-week US bombing campaign and Iran appeared to follow suit, seemingly ending the largest reigniting of the regional conflict since an April ceasefire.

Mediators were expecting Trump to decide following his Tuesday White House meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whether to revive last month’s interim agreement with Iran, which Israel is not a party to.

The US-Saudi strikes in eastern Iraq occurred just hours after the US military said its air defenses had averted a surprise Iranian attack on US troops in the region.

The Jordanian military said it shot down five Iranian missiles targeting the kingdom. The IRGC said it had fired several ballistic missiles at the US military in Jordan, and vowed to keep up its “resistance” as long as “illegal and malicious actions by US forces against our interests are underway.”

Iranian official says it’s a ‘major miscalculation’ to blame Iran for attacks from other countries

An unnamed Iranian defense official was also cited by state broadcaster IRIB strongly denying any connection between projectiles fired from other countries toward Saudi targets.

Attributing attacks on US interests in the region to Iran was a “major miscalculation,” the official said.

The comments followed the Saudi defense ministry’s accusation on Tuesday that pro-Iran militias in Iraq had launched drones at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. Saudi air defenses destroyed the drones, the ministry said.

The ministry and the US military’s Central Command later said they hit multiple sites in eastern Iraq that were used by Iran to direct drone attacks. The Saudi ministry said it was not seeking escalation but would respond to any “aggression.”

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force, a coalition of Iran-aligned Shiite militias embedded in the Iraqi military, said at least 20 people were killed and 32 wounded after the US and Saudi Arabia targeted official PMF headquarters in different parts of Iraq.

The PMF decried the strikes as a “dangerous escalation, a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and an attack on its official security institutions.”

The most active pro-Iran armed groups are united under an alliance known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has interfered in support of Tehran during the war earlier this year, claiming hundreds of attacks against US bases in Iraq and across the region.

But they have not claimed any attacks since hostilities between the US and Iran resumed earlier this month.

Washington and Tehran are Iraq’s main allies, but their enmity has long turned the country into a proxy battleground and left successive governments struggling to maintain a delicate balance between the foes.

Amid growing US pressure, Iraq’s new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who came to power this year with Washington’s blessing, vowed to ensure pro-Iran armed groups would hand over their weapons, but he has faced pushback from some powerful factions. Earlier this month, Zaidi visited both the United States and Iran.

Iran nixes Omani proposal for joint management of Hormuz

Tensions between the US and Iran re-erupted earlier this month over Iran’s continued attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of the world’s oil shipments before the war.

In a bid to ease the tensions, Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the waterway that would include collecting voluntary fees from ships, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday.

However, a senior Iranian official said a 50-50 joint control arrangement with Oman would not serve Iran’s interests, through Tehran considers Oman a valuable neighbor.

Iran and Oman control opposite shores of the Strait of Hormuz, but Iran insists the entire inbound route through the strait and part of the outbound route must be under its control, the Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Omani proposal, on the other hand, would prevent Iran from exercising sole control, while also ensuring all fees for transiting ships would be voluntary, according to the Gulf source and Western diplomat briefed on the matter.

The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.

Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers met via video call on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the conflict, a statement from the Qatari Foreign Ministry said.

A US official on Tuesday again rejected the idea of tolls or fees for ships transiting the strait, reiterating that it is an international waterway that should be free of Iranian control or restrictions. The official told Reuters that the deal under discussion would not include any tolls or fees.

Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz early in the war, which the US and Israel launched on the Islamic Republic on February 28.

A deal last month between the US and Iran partially reopened the strait, with future talks planned to resolve larger issues including Iran’s nuclear program. But the agreement, which Israel was not a party to, collapsed in early July after Iran fired on vessels using a shipping channel it does not recognize.

On Wednesday, the IRGC said it struck three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and forced them to stop after they ignored warnings for taking an “unsafe and illegal route.” Reuters could not immediately verify the Guards’ account.

The IRGC Navy said in a statement that it continued to maintain full control over the strategic waterway and warned that “unlawful US military interference” and instructions to vessels in the region would not go unanswered.