Iran declares full-scale war as US strikes Bushehr

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian declared on Monday that his country is engaged in a "full-scale war" with the United States, as American strikes hit new targets deeper inside Iran and both sides expanded combat operations across the wider Middle East. The conflict has now spread well beyond the Strait of Hormuz, with Iranian forces striking targets in Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain overnight, while Washington extended its air campaign into northern and central Iran for the ninth consecutive night.

The escalation marks a sharp breakdown of a short-lived ceasefire. A truce agreement signed in June had produced weeks of relative calm, but it collapsed over the weekend, and both sides moved quickly to reassert their positions. Tehran reimposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies had been moving before the war began. Washington responded by blockading Iranian ports. Oil prices surged to a one-month high as the standoff over this critical chokepoint intensified.

Monday's American strikes hit all Iranian provinces that host military bases and air defence systems, IRNA, Iran's state news agency, reported. The most alarming single location was Bushehr, home to Iran's only operational civilian nuclear power plant. Bushehr's provincial governor, Mohammad Mozaffari, confirmed to IRNA that "several locations in Bushehr city were hit by American enemy's projectiles." The plant's status was not detailed in official statements, but any strike near nuclear infrastructure carries obvious risks that extend far beyond the immediate battlefield.

In East Azerbaijan in Iran's north, local crisis management official Majid Farshi told IRNA that one person was killed and several others were injured. Iran's health ministry had already reported, as of Friday, that 50 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in recent fighting.

Iran strikes across the region

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced a series of retaliatory strikes overnight. In Syria, Iranian forces hit what they described as a US special operations command centre in the Al-Tanf region, though Washington had already withdrawn its troops from Al-Tanf in February. In Jordan, the Guards said they fired ballistic missiles at US military aircraft at Aqaba Airport, claiming severe damage to several aircraft. The Guards also said they destroyed an early-warning radar system at a US military base in Kuwait. Kuwaiti forces confirmed they were engaging hostile drone attacks. Bahrain said Iran had targeted its air navigation systems, with its interior ministry sounding air raid sirens and directing people to seek shelter.

At sea, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency reported that sailors abandoned a vessel that caught fire after an attack in the Strait of Hormuz. The Revolutionary Guards earlier claimed two oil tankers attempting to transit the strait "exploded and were brought to a halt," according to a statement carried by Tasnim news agency. Commercial shipping through one of the world's most important energy corridors is now effectively paralysed.

Casualties and diplomacy running in parallel

US Central Command confirmed three new American military deaths over the weekend, bringing total confirmed US fatalities to 17 since the conflict began with a joint US-Israeli strike on Iran. Two service members died during Iranian missile and drone attacks on Jordan on Friday. A third died in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone. One more service member remains missing in action. President Donald Trump said the strikes on Iran "hit them very hard" in honour of the fallen troops.

Despite the intensity of the fighting, diplomatic channels have not fully closed. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei confirmed at a Tehran press conference that "ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators" and that exchanges with Washington via third parties were continuing. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday he would "continue to try" to reach a diplomatic solution, while simultaneously calling on other countries to help protect global shipping lanes. Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni was also set to travel to Islamabad on Monday, according to a Pakistani interior ministry source, though the purpose of the visit was not confirmed.

The competing signals, active combat alongside back-channel diplomacy, suggest both sides are managing domestic pressure while keeping a narrow exit open. For global markets, the immediate concern is the Strait of Hormuz. A prolonged blockade would tighten oil supply significantly, sustain elevated energy prices, and raise freight and insurance costs across Asia, Europe, and beyond. The strikes near Bushehr add a further layer of risk that financial markets and nuclear watchdog bodies will be watching closely in the days ahead.