Iran on Tuesday stepped up its attacks on regional Arab countries, as Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait all reported heavy bombardment. Kuwait said that Iranian missiles struck power plants and water facilities, forcing the government to call for the rationing of electricity at the height of summer in one of the hottest countries in the world.

Iran and the United States have traded intense fire over the past 10 days, with the US military carrying out nightly strikes on military and industrial sites across the country.

Despite the heavy damage caused, a new American intelligence has reportedly suggested that the ongoing US strikes are unlikely to change Iran’s negotiating position, amid a deadlock in talks over the Straight of Hormuz and Tehran’s nuclear program, which mediators have pushed to restart in recent days.

In the Gulf, the Kuwaiti government said Iran had struck desalination and power plants for a fourth straight day on Monday night. Authorities said the attacks sparked fires and caused damage.

Some 90 percent of Kuwait’s drinking water comes from desalination, making the attacks a matter of life and death for the tiny nation. Additionally, most desalination plants in the Gulf are integrated power and water production facilities because the process requires intensive energy input.

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The small Gulf country’s authorities have called on the public to consume less energy so that they can maintain round-the-clock electricity as the grid comes under Iranian attack. Despite being one of the largest crude producers in the OPEC oil cartel, Kuwait regularly has trouble meeting local electric demand, especially during the summertime, when temperatures top 50º C (120º F).

Kuwait is home to several major US military bases.

???????? Iranian missile attack on Kuwait, sirens sounding. pic.twitter.com/Fn4xoiXvkK

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) July 21, 2026

In nearby Bahrain, where residents have been waking up to sirens and explosions for weeks, several waves of missile and drone attacks were reported throughout the day on Tuesday.

Iran said it targeted infrastructure in Bahrain belonging to US tech company Amazon in response to what they described as a US strike on the construction site of Iran’s planned Darkhovin nuclear power plant.

Iranian state media reported that Iranian forces also targeted accommodation facilities of US military personnel at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Air Base. There was no immediate comment from the US military, Bahrain or Amazon on the reported incidents, which Reuters was unable to verify.

The tiny island kingdom is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

In Jordan, the military said Tuesday that Iran targeted it with five drones and three missiles, all of which were shot down.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said they targeted a US military site in the kingdom.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has issued an updated advisory on the reported attack against a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, stating that the crew has now abandoned ship.

According to @_MartinKelly_ , the vessel is the Kuwaiti-owned motor tanker ‘Kaifan’.… pic.twitter.com/m98dr7INZY

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 21, 2026

Additionally, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a tanker came under attack early Tuesday in the strait off Oman, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel.

The IRGC claimed the attack, as well as two other attacks on ships Monday in the waterway.

The route around Oman has been the one the US military has encouraged ships to travel to avoid Iran’s control, though Iran has regularly fired on ships using that route.

US keeps bombing, but assesses it’s unlikely to change Iran’s position

Meanwhile, the US continued its bombing campaign inside Iran, with the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) saying it targeted “Iranian military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and air defense systems.” It released more footage of bombings that targeted sites in Iran.

“American forces remain postured and prepared to hold Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression toward civilian mariners seeking to freely and openly transit the strait,” CENTCOM said.

Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard in Fars, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman, and Sistan and Baluchistan provinces.

A 5-inch Mark 45 gun fires during a live-fire exercise aboard Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87), deployed in the Middle East, in a photo released July 21, 2026. (US Navy photo)

Despite the continued bombing, a new US intelligence assessment has reportedly said that the ongoing American strikes on Iran, in their current scope, are unlikely to change Iran’s negotiating position, according to The Washington Post.

As long as back-and-forth strikes continue, said the assessment, Iran and the US will be caught between peace and war indefinitely, according to the report.

The paper did not specify whether the report examines the potential effect of a different pattern of operations by the US military.

The White House has been briefed on the assessment, the Post added.

Mediators look to salvage deal

Meanwhile, diplomats from mediating countries sought Tuesday to salvage the collapsed interim deal between Iran and the US even as both countries continued to launch attacks in a 10th day of renewed fighting.

Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni’s visit to Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, pointed to intensified diplomatic efforts, but it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war.

Momeni met Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations. Momeni later met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

In this photo released by the Pakistan Prime Minister Office, Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, left, meets with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, right, in Islamabad, Pakistan, July 21, 2026. (Pakistan Prime Minister Office via AP)

Pakistan’s political leadership and Munir, who serves as both the chief of army staff and defense forces, played a key role in brokering last month’s memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran. Islamabad has been working to persuade both sides to return to the negotiating table to resolve outstanding issues under the June interim deal.

Authorities did not immediately release details of the meeting.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Washington remained open to negotiating with Iran but that “it has to be real.” It remains unclear whether Tehran will offer anything that US President Donald Trump would consider “real.”

A deep level of distrust persists on both sides. Iran came under surprise attack in June 2025 and again in February while it was engaging in nuclear negotiations with the US. The interim deal unraveled when Iran resumed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which was supposed to be reopened under the agreement.

Top Iran diplomat says he’s never met Mojtaba Khamenei

The February US-Israeli strikes, which sparked the current war, killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said recently that the intelligence breach that allowed Israel to assassinate Khamenei has likely not been patched.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks during a news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fouad Hussein after their meeting at the foreign ministry in Baghdad, Iraq, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In a Persian-language interview published Sunday, Araghchi says that he told President Masoud Pezeshkian on the morning of February 28 that “the atmosphere is war.” He said that he then met with Khamenei aide Ali Asghar Mir Hijazi at 9 a.m., shortly after which Israel carried out the deadly attack on a Tehran compound where Khamenei was having a high-level meeting.

Khamenei was killed in the opening salvo of the campaign, during which 40 other senior commanders were assassinated as well.

Araghchi says at the time of the strike, Khamenei was in his office, the advisory Strategic Council for Foreign Relations was holding its weekly meeting, and the Defense Council had also convened.

“Holding simultaneous meetings was not unusual in those days,” says Araghchi, “but the enemy’s knowledge of these meetings was the result of an information breach that probably still exists.”

A man holds a picture of Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque, during funeral ceremonies for slain supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family in Tehran, Iran, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Araghchi also said that he has yet to meet with new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in person.

“Only a handful of people have met him,” he said.

Khamenei, who was reported to be seriously injured in the strikes that killed his father, has only communicated via written statements since he was appointed as his successor, and has made no public appearances.