New Delhi, July 31 -- The United States and Iran have been trading tit-for-tat strikes for nearly a month, marking a renewed escalation in the conflict and drawing more countries into the roughly five-month-old war.

On Thursday (local time), Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned that the Middle East conflict was entering a dangerous new phase after a drone struck a US-owned gas tanker at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta.

Egypt on Thursday confirmed that a drone strike caused the fire aboard two gas vessels at the Mediterranean port of Damietta, ruling out the possibility of an accidental blaze. The confirmation followed an earlier assessment by British maritime security firm Ambrey, which said on Wednesday that a drone ha...