THE ceasefire between Iran and the United States teetered on the brink as both sides exchanged fire on Sunday.

Iran launched drone and missile attacks targeting US interests in Bahrain and Kuwait, a move which threatened talks aimed at ending the illegal and unprovoked war unleashed by the US and Israel in February.

This followed two nights of US air strikes against Iran.

Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. 

A multinational maritime body overseen by the US navy said on Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic, setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran.

Iran insists that after the war it alone must govern the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. 

In recent days, Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through a route on the Omani side of the strait backed by a United Nations agency.

The US and Iran are still debating the terms of an interim peace deal, including issues such as getting ships through the strait, removing US blockades and sanctions and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. 

Under the memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month, the US and Iran have 60 days to iron out the details. 

The strikes threaten to torpedo the deal before it can be finalised.

Kuwait, which hosts a major US army base, said it had detected and intercepted two ballistic missiles and there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said that the Iranian strikes damaged a residential building near the international airport and no-one was killed. 

Bahrain houses the US navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base there came under fire during the war. 

The US military’s Central Command said that it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defence sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” on Sunday, following an attack on a ship at sea early on Saturday morning. 

In a social media post, US President Donald Trump said the US had “struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites for violating the ceasefire agreement, again!” 

He warned Iran that if the violations continued the US may no longer be able to be reasonable “and will be forced to militarily complete the job.”

He said: “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”