The United States and Iran are talking about diplomacy, while exchanging increasingly severe threats and attacks. Washington says its latest strikes are retaliation, Tehran says its response is not over, and countries across the Gulf are trying to stop the confrontation escalating further. But as the diplomatic language continues, so too does the human cost.
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TRANSCRIPT
It was supposed to be one of the best days of their lives.
But for a couple getting married in Kuhestak, in southern Iran, it may well have become the worst when a U-S strike hit a home where their wedding celebration was taking place.
Hormozgan Province's deputy governor Ahmad Nafisi says several people were killed.
“Unfortunately, tonight we witness another crime of the US in the country of Iran, especially in Hormuzgan province. Which was an attack on a gathering of people in Kuhestak of Sirik county, while the people were busy with a happy occasion, meaning a wedding. Unfortunately four citizens were martyred, among them a woman and a young child.”
The Iranian Red Crescent has since put the death toll at five, with 50 people wounded.
The attack was part of a wider U-S operation across southern Iran.
Explosions were reported around Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island and Jask, as well as Sistan and Baluchestan province.
U-S Central Command says it was targeting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
At around the same time, halfway around the world in Washington D-C, U-S President Donald Trump was on social media, posting:
"The United States is, as we speak, striking Iranian Targets near the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes are large and powerful, and in retaliation for the Iranians’ failed attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait, which currently has no mines (They have been completely removed or detonated!), and the Iranians shooting eight missiles, all successfully knocked down, at our Military Base in Jordan. "
He continued, posting:
"If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran! "
Tehran has retaliated, firing missiles and drones at U-S interests in the region.
However, according to Iran's armed forces, as reported on state television, heavier retaliatory strikes will follow.
“General Staff of the Armed Forces and Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters announced: In response to the US military's aerial aggression against locations in Sistan and Baluchestan and Hormozgan, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will deliver crushing and devastating blows to the despicable and malicious American enemy. ... No matter how much the terrorist US army insists on wickedness in the region, it must endure greater and heavier losses. ”
The latest escalation comes after a month of relative calm between the two countries.
That changed on Sunday, when the U-S struck Iranian launchers on Larak Island, saying Revolutionary Guard forces were preparing an attack involving sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran retaliated with ballistic missiles towards American bases in Jordan.
By Tuesday, the fighting had escalated again, with the latest U-S strikes followed by another Iranian response.
This has all complicated attempts to get both sides back to negotiations.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei now says Tehran will not allow the latest U-S attacks to go unanswered, nor will it accept Washington's manner of negotiating.
"The Americans have mistaken the concept of negotiation with dictation. And that won't work when it comes to Iran. If they continue with that manner they won't get any better results than what they have got so far. We emphasise that we must watch enemy movements with full vigilance and force, and as recently shown, our armed forces will not leave any act of aggression unanswered."
Meanwhile, the economic consequences of the confrontation are growing.
Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted shipping, with two tankers reportedly hit while leaving the waterway on Monday [[31 August]].
And oil prices have risen.
But, Qatar is not giving up.
Located less than 200 kilometres away at its closest point from Iran, Qatar is among the countries still trying to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid al-Ansari says the consequences of the conflict are being felt near and far.
"We cannot afford to accept the status quo as it stands right now. The effects of the current escalation are not felt only here in the region. They are felt across the world: reduced yields from crops in needy communities; the effects on the medical industries when it comes to helium; the effects on various industries when it comes to other products; the energy product shortage that will occur. All of that is felt across the world. It has entered homes in far geographies where they have nothing to do with the crisis here."
And while diplomats in nearby Qatar search for a way to stop the fighting, in Kuhestak, a family that gathered to celebrate two lives coming together is now mourning five lives lost.
