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........

© The Times of Israel