Iran Says It Hit a U.S. Radar in Bahrain as Washington Reports Both Drones Downed

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday that it had hit and destroyed a U.S. radar in Bahrain used for early warning. U.S. Central Command gave a different account, saying both of the one-way attack drones the Guard sent toward the island kingdom were shot down by U.S. forces and that the attack caused no injuries or damage.

The Guard said it struck in response to an air attack Thursday on a Sirik telecommunications tower. Sirik is a port in Hormozgan province on the Iranian side of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's official news agency said Sirik had come under "enemy" fire but did not say who carried it out. Central Command's statement did not address Sirik, and neither side's version could be independently confirmed.

In its statement, the Guard described the strike as a "serious warning" to the "aggressor enemy" over what it called provocations from the air and the smuggling of oil through the strait, and said its aerospace force stood ready to respond again if the attacks continued. Bahrain is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

The exchange came a day after President Trump announced on Truth Social that he was done pursuing an agreement with Tehran. "We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed," he wrote. "We've got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we've got their Strait!"

The post also said Trump had told Vance, his vice president, to give his "complete and total attention" to what the president described as corruption and crime in cities and states run by Democrats.

The move takes Vance off the file he had carried for most of the year. He led U.S. negotiators in talks with Iranian officials in Pakistan in the spring. Those talks led to a June accord known as a memorandum of understanding. That agreement came apart within weeks over disputes about who would control shipping through the strait. Vance later joined face-to-face negotiations with Iranian officials held in Switzerland, and he worked with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan.

After Republicans suffered heavy losses in the midterm elections this month, Vance blamed the conflict. "The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," Vance said in an X post.

Other senior officials have favored pressure over force. On Tuesday, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, argued that sanctions and the naval blockade were hurting Iran's economy badly enough that major combat operations were not needed for the time being. After meeting Qatar's prime minister on Monday, Trump wrote that the United States was "locked and loaded" but that new strikes seemed "quite unlikely."

In a Thursday interview with Hugh Hewitt, a conservative radio host, Trump also said he would "certainly consider" military action against Cuba and that he wanted to "get Cuba done" before his term ends in 2029.

Tension in the waterway itself remains high. On Thursday, Iranian forces said mines in the strait's eastern waters had set at least one tanker on fire, warning that ships had entered a restricted and unsafe zone.

In Tehran, the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that appoints the supreme leader, said that weighing whether Iran should quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, along with rewriting Iran's defense doctrine, had become an "unavoidable necessity." The statement urged officials to take up the question under the supreme leader's guidance and stopped short of announcing an exit.

The International Atomic Energy Agency told member states in a confidential report Friday that it is "increasingly concerned" about an Isfahan enrichment facility that Iran first disclosed to the agency in June 2025 and has kept closed to inspectors ever since. The agency said it cannot say exactly where the plant is or whether any nuclear material is inside.