First Thing: Trump tells critics to ‘sit back and relax’ as Iran claims to target US base

Good morning, Martin Belam here. I will be popping into your inbox writing First Thing regularly for the next little while. Here are today’s main stories … Trump promises war with Iran ‘will all work out well in the end’ Donald Trump has told critics of his Israeli-backed war on Iran to “sit back and relax”. Posting on Truth Social, the US president claimed securing a deal with Iran to end the war was being made more difficult by what he said were “political hacks” who “keep negatively ‘chirping’”, but that “it will all work out well in the end. It always does!” Meanwhile, the US said it struck Iranian military sites at the weekend, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday it had targeted an airbase used by the US for an attack on southern Iran. Air defences in Kuwait, where a large US base is located, were intercepting missile and drone attacks on Monday as sirens sounded across the country, the state news agency Kuna reported. Is this the end of the ceasefire, then? The US and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since their ceasefire took effect in early April, as negotiations aimed at a more durable agreement drag on. A similar exchange occurred last Thursday. The war launched by the US and Israel on 28 February has killed thousands of people – mainly in Iran and Lebanon – and caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices. …