US-Iran War: Iran Launches Series Of Strikes in Response To US Attack On Qeshm Island | WION

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Intentions are peaking once again in West Asia. In a dangerous escalation on Wednesday, Iran warned the US saying that the time of hit-and-run is over as it claimed carrying out concentrated missile strikes in response to US attacks on Iran's Qeshm Island. In a statement, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said that it struck the headquarters of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and a separate airbase in the region as it threatened any aggression will be met with a seismic, crushing, and decisive response. However, the US military denied IRGC's claims. The US Central Command confirmed that Iran launched several missiles towards the region and regional neighbors, but said all these missiles, they failed to hit their intended targets.

[00:00:45]Two missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart en route, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted. IRGC, however, released footage showing strikes against US forces in the Gulf.

[00:01:07]And later in the day, Kuwait said that its international airport was hit by a drone strike wounding several people and forcing air traffic suspension as well.

[00:01:16]Now, Tehran has targeted both US bases and shared military facilities in retaliation to the US-Israeli strikes across Iran and Lebanon over the past 3 months. The Pentagon says that it has hit more than 13,000 targets in Iran since the start of Operation Epic Fury. It began on the 28th of February.

[00:01:34]Mohammad Jafar Asadi, who's a deputy head of Iran's Central Military Command, Khatam al-Anbiya, said that a resumption of hostilities with the US is inevitable as negotiations between Tehran and Washington appear to stall.

[00:01:49]And this is happening even as US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the two sides were speaking and Denying any reports that Iran had broken off contact over Israel's attack on Lebanon.

[00:02:02]Trump added that one never knows where the negotiations would lead, but in a message to Iran, he said that it's time one way or another to make a deal.

[00:02:19]>> [music] >> All right, to discuss this further, I'm now being joined by James Marlow, foreign and defense analyst. Mr. Marlow, always a pleasure speaking with you.

[00:02:31]Thanks so much for joining me here on point, counterpoint. Let's start right off. Donald Trump says a deal must be achieved.

[00:02:38]Iran on the other hand is saying that time for hit and run is over and that war is inevitable. What do you make of this going forward? Is this seeming like it's heading in the direction of a deal?

[00:02:51]>> Iran is definitely back on flexing their muscles once again and they're trying to prove to their people, most of whom do not support this regime whatsoever, they're trying to prove to their people that they are on the same level, the same military powerful level as the United States, which of course is not true. But nevertheless, they are beginning to push the United States a little bit in the corner. From Donald Trump's point of view, he is, as we all know, a very unconventional American president. Perhaps the most unconventional president we've ever seen before in the history of the United States. He tends to write his social media posts and also when he gives a lot of talk to journalists and he enjoys doing that very much as they're more like conversations as opposed to explaining what policy is.

[00:03:40]And I was having a discussion about this with some intelligence people a few days ago and it seems to be that a lot of the American people are unclear, are unsure about what America is doing in the Middle East and what its objective is with regard to Iran. So, what Donald Trump really needs to do is to explain what the policy is, why Iran and that region is a strategic importance to the United States, why the Iranians cannot acquire nuclear weapons, why the Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, and why you cannot actually give um lift the sanctions on Iran, and of course give them exactly what Obama did uh back in 2015, um billions of dollars, which is what the Iranians are requesting in order to go ahead and quietness down and for them to open up the Strait of Hormuz. And even if you were doing that, in some reports were saying that the Iranians will now still decide whether they're going to start charging uh for some of the carriers going through the Strait of Hormuz. So, at the moment, the Iranians seem to think that they've got the upper hand, but the problem is that a lot of the people around the world don't really understand the policy and what's going on, and the Americans need to explain it to the American people.

[00:05:03]>> Let's start right off on an agreement because Americans are largely disillusioned by the purpose of this war. It goes right back to the 28th of February when Donald Trump had said that this war was started on a good feeling, but that feeling is yet for the public to understand, and they need to do more to explain it to them. The objective's constantly shifting has not helped that cause either. But when we come back to where things stand right now, Mr. Marlo, uh you have the Iranians giving these kind of statements at one point, just one or two days, this was on the 1st of June, that uh Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that they were stepping away from negotiations altogether. That led to that call between Donald Trump, that reported call between Donald Trump and Netanyahu, which was full of profanities as per the reports. And do you feel that it is Israel's actions in Lebanon which are creating a major hindrance in an already extremely complicated situation with state of almost adding on to the earlier complications which already existed?

[00:05:57]>> Well, firstly on that call yesterday, a lot of reports have been said about that. I have heard um that perhaps that they were not accurate at all. And actually I heard yesterday one of the main Washington correspondents who is very very critical of Donald Trump and very critical of the Israeli government as well. Him saying to the global news network in the UK which owns a number of radio stations including the LBC radio station in the UK. And their main senior Washington correspondent said and I'm quoting right now that in the past Axios has actually put out an incredible amount of information and got most of it wrong.

[00:06:36]And I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to hear that coming from this particular correspondent. So, there's no doubt that Netanyahu and Trump had regular conversations. They had a conversation yesterday. There is clearly a bit of pressure on Donald Trump. And the reason is is because this has been revealed in previous conversations over the last week to 10 days. And that is that Donald Trump is facing a very important election coming up in November. It's the midterms. There is a good chance that Republicans could lose the house and possibly the Senate. And what Donald Trump has said to Netanyahu is that look, if the Democrats get in, this is not going to be very very good for you because the Democrats are still deciding exactly which direction they're going to go. Are they going to go for a full socialist forward thinking type of government and that's what they're aiming for? Or are they going to go for a center to left?

[00:07:28]But either way, there's a lot of Democrats that are very critical of Israel and Israel's actions and also of defending themselves against what was seven countries and they're still doing that right now. In fact, just before you came to me, I was getting word that again northern Israel is getting bombarded by Hezbollah with these attack drones. And almost every single day now there are funerals inside of Israel from these attack drones, which is the reason why, and I know that we're now moving on to Lebanon because you brought it up in the introduction, but this is a very important factor because Iran is actually bringing this up quite a lot.

[00:08:03]It wants Israel to stop what it's doing.

[00:08:05]But you know, this has been going on with regard to Israel and Hezbollah for well, since 1982. There's been UN Security Council resolutions against Hezbollah. There has been actual UN troops inside of Lebanon and it's done absolutely nothing because Hezbollah ignore all of that. There's nothing that the UN seem to be able to do. They come down to the south and they continue to fire missiles and rockets and now obviously these attack drones. So the Israelis have said, "This is enough. We cannot keep taking these casualties."

[00:08:35]and have moved straight in to Lebanon as you know. They're moving further forward. Now they did actually put out a statement two days ago to say that they were they've given the order to attack the Dahieh neighborhood, which is a a very big stronghold in Beirut. Um then that news spread around the world and then we heard that Donald Trump got on the phone to Bibi Netanyahu and said, "No, don't do that." and that was held back. Now there were question marks about the strategy of that whether Netanyahu was actually just trying to raise that to put Hezbollah on the defensive line to say, "Look, we will announce that we're going to hit there.

[00:09:10]Evacuate those neighborhoods." which is what's taking place and and I don't think it's uh I can't think of any other army in the world, the Americans, the British, the Indians giving notice that they're going to attack the enemy but getting civilians out beforehand. Uh but nevertheless, this is a real serious issue with regard to Israel. And the other problem is that the Lebanese the Lebanese government really do want peace with Israel. Let me come in there, James. Yeah, let me come in there, James. Uh Yeah, as far as the Lebanese government is concerned, that's essentially where Lebanon is the one that is It's the Lebanese people who are being hurt the most. Over a million being displaced, the death toll is mounting in Lebanon, but you can't ignore the fact that Israel has entered Lebanon as far into it as it has not done in the last 26 years, and this is when a ceasefire is in place. And also that quick comment about the Indians as well, we did in fact give a call to the Pakistanis before Operation Sindoor was launched. They did not pay heed to it, and we went ahead. But let me come back to our point.

[00:10:12]Regarding Lebanon, the fact that these actions are taking place in the midst of a ceasefire and an extension of that ceasefire, in spite of the fact that Donald Trump has said that Israel is prohibited, that's a quote-unquote from his own post, even then these actions continue. Nothing takes away from the fact that Hezbollah fired towards Israel first on the 2nd of March, but now, if you just look at the overall situation, Lebanon has become one of the pivotal points for any kind of a peace in a larger deal between US and Iran, which was always going to be extremely difficult. But if you just look at the overall situation at this point, in your opinion, do you find a resumption of hostilities imminent in West Asia?

[00:10:54]>> That's the feeling from the Israeli point of view. There's very few Israelis that do not feel that this is not going to reignite, and that's what makes it very difficult for people flying into the region as to whether their flights is going to be delayed or canceled or put off somewhere else as well, also including people like myself as well, who's also just booked another couple of flights for the week after next. And again, you just don't know what's going to take place. It's just the Israeli Airlines will keep flying in there. But this is a big problem because there are some in America who understand the situation, know that this is not over. I also think that Marco Rubio has got a real good head on himself and he understands the situation in the Middle East very, very well. He's got a big background in Middle East and he's managed to to grasp the overall picture as you say and I think from his point of view, he knows this is not over but of course he's the Secretary of State and not the American president. Just on one point with regard to Lebanon, you mentioned the ceasefire. Of course, it's not really a ceasefire when Israel is attacking Hezbollah and Hezbollah are firing these rockets and also attack drones every single day and there are casualties on both sides.

[00:12:04]A lot of the casualties, I do have to say, are strikes against Hezbollah but of course, as in all wars, there are civilian casualties. But it's a very difficult situation from Lebanon's point of view and the Lebanese government and I'm putting myself in their position because as I said, on the one hand they would love to have a peace treaty with Israel. I mean, just imagine it, open borders and embassies in each other's countries and tens of thousands of Israelis going to Lebanon, going to Beirut and Lebanese coming into Israel.

[00:12:32]I mean, it would just fantastic. The problem is that they know that there's a gun literally at their heads. And also, you've got a problem that Hezbollah have infiltrated the Lebanese government and the Lebanese infrastructure itself.

[00:12:47]Obviously, they are part of the government inside of Beirut and at the same time they've they've also they they are part of the intelligence core as the information that I received from Israel just a few days ago. So, I understand from Lebanese the Lebanese government point of view, they're in a very difficult situation.

[00:13:04]>> Yeah, James and as far as the Lebanese people are concerned, they are taking the major brunt of this apart from the Israelis as well. But the overall cause, it's only leading towards more hostilities in the larger aspect of things between US and Iran in West Asia.

[00:13:19]The Strait of Hormuz the Bab al-Mandeb Strait has not come into the fold as Iran has threatened time and again. So, they They have a few cards that they've not really used as of now. One would hope that never becomes the case. We'll need to wait and watch how this one happens. And on just on a parting note, James, if there's anything on record that you have from the journalist that you spoke with who explained more about that call between Trump and Netanyahu, please do share it with me as we we converse off screen as well. I will look forward to speaking with you again on screen. That was James Marlow joining me from London.