Bahrain says air defences destroyed several Iranian drones attacking US base

Bahrain issued two alerts of potential threats to Sunday, its first such warning since September. These were reportedly the second Iranian drone attack in three days, ending a long lull in strikes during the Middle East war. While Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed they struck a U.S. military base in the Gulf Kingdom, Bahrain said it intercepted and destroyed several Iranian aerial attacks. Diplomatic efforts to end the almost nine-month conflict have yet to produce I'm going to do some breakthrough. More or less speak to our correspondent in Tehran. Hello to you, Reza. Tell us a little bit about how Tehran is justifying these attacks on Bahrain. Tehran essentially says what they targeted this morning were legitimate targets and that's why they did it. That's why they'll continue to do them in the future. This last time Iranian forces targeted a U.S. military base in the region was back in September. Now they've done it twice in three days. And what's revealing is that soon after these attacks this morning, the Revolutionary Guard released this statement. Acknowledging that it was them, that it was them who launched this drone attack targeting a U.S. naval base in Bahrain. And with that acknowledgement, the message from Tehran, it's clear that they're still on a war footing. They're not afraid to continue to be aggressive in anything they deem to be a threat. Including facilities on neighboring soil, they're going to target them. Let's tell you exactly what we know. Early this morning before dawn, in Bahrain, reports of alarms sounding. And soon after, it was the Bahrain Defense Forces and the foreign ministry confirming that they were on the receiving end of an aerial attack. Officials there said that their defense systems successfully neutralized the attack. Then it was the Revolutionary Guard here in Yvonne saying that, indeed, they had launched a drone attack targeting U.S. early warning systems, U.S. later warning systems at the naval base in Bahrain. The Revolutionary Guard saying that their attack this morning was a retaliation to U.S. forces targeting their assets in the city of Zurich last week and also in retaliation of what Tehran says is the U.S. A continuation of efforts to smuggle oil through the Strait of Hormuz in defiance of Iran's position. And Iran's position is the Strait of Hormuz is under our authority and no ships will go through without our authorization. This morning, Bahrain, the governments of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia condemned the attack by Iran, saying it was a violation of Bahrain's sovereignty. This isn't the first time Gulf countries have condemned Iran. Iran's position has always been that these U.S. assets and facilities in these Gulf countries are a threat and legitimate targets. And they've also repeatedly said that Gulf nations have never condemned the war that was started by U.S. and Israel twice over the past year and a half during negotiations. Well, Reza, how did today's attacks impact these negotiations between Iran and the In the United States. First off, both Tehran and Washington have given no indication that there's any progress in these negotiations. As far as the conflict goes, there's certainly a potential for these tit-for-tat attacks to spark a wider all-out conflict. But the impression here is that for the foreseeable future, there's going to be this low-intensity warfare. And for the past several weeks, we've listened to countless... Military analysts, geopolitical analysts who don't know where this conflict is going and how it's going to end. It looks like both sides are at an impasse. Washington could certainly get more aggressive, start another all out war again. But there's no sign that that's going to yield any success. And backing down from Washington's standpoint is going to be viewed as a huge defeat. And Iran sees this as a big opportunity to change the balance. of power in the region, they're certainly not going to back down. And their position is they're not going to make any concessions to Washington unless Washington abides by the conditions of the memorandum of understanding. All right, Reza, thank you very much. Reza Sayah reporting from Tehran.