Iran has accused the United States of bearing direct responsibility for the collapse of the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East, insisting that Israel’s latest military actions cannot be divorced from American policy. “The actions of the Zionist entity within the region cannot be looked at in isolation from the United States,” Esmail Baghaei, the foreign ministry spokesperson, told a press conference. His remarks came as a fresh round of direct missile strikes between Iran and Israel threatened to drag the region back into an all-out war, with the Houthi movement in Yemen dramatically escalating the crisis by reimposing a naval blockade on Israeli-linked shipping.
Iran blames Washington as cross-border strikes intensify
The latest violence was triggered on Sunday when Israel launched airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a target Tehran viewed as a clear breach of the US-brokered ceasefire that had been in place since April. Israel said it was striking Hezbollah infrastructure after the Iranian-backed Lebanese group fired rockets at northern Israel. Lebanon’s state news agency reported that two apartments in two separate buildings were hit, killing two people and wounding 20, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Iran responded by firing missiles at Israel on Sunday, prompting a new wave of Israeli strikes early on Monday targeting military sites in western and central Iran. The Israeli military said in a brief statement that its air force had struck “military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime”. Iranian state television reported explosions in the cities of Isfahan, Karaj, Tabriz and the capital Tehran, where witnesses described hearing at least one large blast west of the city. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards later confirmed that Israel had used air-launched ballistic missiles in the attack. Tehran’s Mehrabad airport suspended all flights indefinitely, while airspace around Imam Khomeini International Airport was also closed.
Israeli officials said a sixth barrage of missiles was launched from Iran on Monday, with sirens sounding across northern and central Israel. Magen David Adom, Israel’s ambulance service, reported no known casualties, adding that medics were scanning the areas where impacts were reported. The Israeli military said its defensive systems were intercepting the incoming threats. Sunday’s Iranian barrage was the first since the ceasefire began in early April, and oil prices surged in response, with Brent crude rising more than 3 per cent to $96.15 a barrel in early Monday trading. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, appealed for calm, stating: “I think the region does not need an escalation, but actually that parties sit down to a negotiation table and agree.”
Despite reports that US President Donald Trump had spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him not to retaliate immediately, Israel proceeded with its strikes. Trump has publicly asserted his dominance over the Israeli leader, telling the Financial Times that “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.” The White House has not commented on whether the strikes were co-ordinated with Washington. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, spent the night contacting his counterparts, including the UK’s Yvette Cooper, Turkey’s Hakan Fidan and the Saudi foreign minister, to justify Tehran’s decision to resume its assault on Israel. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, declared that US bases and assets in the region were now “legitimate targets”.
Houthis rejoin conflict with Red Sea blockade threat
The crisis took a dangerous new turn on Monday when Yemen’s Houthi movement, aligned with Iran, announced it had entered the war for the first time since the April ceasefire. In a televised statement broadcast on the al-Masirah satellite channel, Brigadier General Yahya Saree of the Houthi forces said the group had fired missiles towards the Israeli city of Jaffa and was reimposing a “complete and absolute ban on maritime navigation for the Israeli enemy in the Red Sea”. The statement declared that “any enemy movement from the moment this statement is announced will be a military target for our armed forces” and warned that “we will respond to escalation with escalation”.
The Houthi leadership, also known as Ansar Allah, had previously been reluctant to enter the US–Iran conflict, preferring to focus on peace talks with Saudi Arabia over the reunification of Yemen. Iranian officials had earlier signalled that the revival of the blockade of the Bab al-Mandab strait for Israeli-linked shipping was under consideration. Aliakbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, explicitly warned that “the resistance rings have the power to close both waterways”, referring to the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab. “The choice is yours,” he said; “stop the folly or enter into a regulated balance of the two straits.” A joint closure of both chokepoints would have the capacity to sabotage the east–west flow of commercial naval traffic.
The Houthis’ decision to target Red Sea shipping again threatens to disrupt a trade route through which approximately $1 trillion worth of goods passed each year before the recent hostilities. During the earlier phase of the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza, the Houthis carried out more than 100 attacks on vessels, killing at least nine mariners and sinking four ships. Those assaults forced shipping companies to reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, dramatically increasing costs and transit times. Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said: “This weekend’s escalation between Israel and Iran shows us once again how fragile the ceasefire is. Increased hostilities result in a greater geopolitical risk that the strait could be closed longer than expected, while raising the odds that Iran could take additional steps to restrict shipping in the Red Sea.”
Israel confirmed that a missile was launched from Yemen towards its territory on Monday, adding that its aerial defence systems were operating to intercept the threat. Rescue services reported no casualties or impacts. The Israeli military also said it had identified a missile fired from Yemen targeting an area of Saudi Arabia that houses a US military base. The Israeli military’s spokesperson, Effie Defrin, stated: “The Iranian terror regime made a grave mistake when it chose terror once again… the IDF will continue to operate all across Lebanon … we will not allow fire toward Israel.” Schools were cancelled across Israel and public gatherings were limited, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned of continuous strikes for the next seven days.
Iranian officials admitted that Israeli strikes had hit the Karun Petrochemical Company in the Petrochemical Special Economic Zone, but said no casualties had been caused. “The extent of damage and possible injuries is under investigation,” a statement added. Meanwhile, the Houthi threat to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait has put merchant shipping on high alert. Iran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, told the Russian newspaper Izvestia that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened under new conditions to be set by Iran and Oman, including a transit fee – a position that President Trump strongly opposes.
