At least one person was killed and more than 60 injured in Iranian drone attacks on Kuwait’s international airport, local officials said.
Kuwait’s Defense Ministry spokesman called Wednesday’s attack an “Iranian prison aggression,” while the Foreign Ministry reported damage to diplomatic missions.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for US attacks on an Iranian oil tanker and the island of Qeshm. Iran also claimed to have attacked US bases in the Gulf.
The US previously stated that it launched attacks in “self-defense” against Iran and that it shot down or intercepted Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait and Bahrain.
This latest escalation threatens the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran.
The person killed in the Iranian attack on the Kuwait airport was later identified as an Indian national.
In a statement, India’s Ministry of External Affairs condemned the attack, saying several Indian citizens were injured.
“We again urge the parties to cease such attacks,” the statement added.
Attacks and counterattacks
Following the attacks, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry ordered the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats from the country within 24 hours and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires.
Shortly before, the US Central Command (Centcom) declared that its nighttime attacks against the island of Qeshm, in the Strait of Hormuz, were “in response to Iran’s attack attempts throughout the Middle East” and targeted an Iranian military ground management station.
He also stated that the US shot down three attack drones launched by Iran against “civilian sailors legitimately transiting regional waters.”
Centcom added that Iran fired two missiles at Kuwait and three at Bahrain, all of which disintegrated or were intercepted.
Iran claimed to have attacked US bases and helicopters in a “country in the region” using missiles and drones in retaliation.
Centcom reported that it attacked and disabled an empty oil tanker sailing towards Iran, within the framework of the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which began on April 13.
A US aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into the engine room of the Botswana-flagged ship M/T after its crew ignored repeated warnings.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed immediate retaliation and warned that “disrupting the security of the Strait of Hormuz will have serious consequences for the aggressive US military.”
In Tehran, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that the leaders of Kuwait and Bahrain bear “direct and unequivocal responsibility” for the “acts of aggression on Tuesday night,” according to the AFP news agency.
Iran has repeatedly attacked targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, where US military bases are located.
The attacks came as ceasefire negotiations between the US and Iran stalled, and the agreement to end the war did not move forward over the weekend.
Pending an agreement
This week, US President Donald Trump told his critics to “relax” and insisted that Iran “really wants to make a deal and it will be beneficial for the US.”
US media previously reported that Trump requested modifications to the terms of a possible peace deal, after meeting with his top advisers to discuss extending the framework of a ceasefire.
The changes concern the Strait of Hormuz and the withdrawal of highly enriched uranium from Iran, as reported by CBS Recordsdata, the BBC’s US news partner, as well as a framework for resuming negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei denied that this had been on the table, adding that Washington “constantly changes its mind and presents new or contradictory demands.”
In an interview broadcast this Wednesday, Trump stated that Iran “had already agreed not to have nuclear weapons.”
Trump said Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “involved” in the talks.
“We seem to get along pretty well,” Trump said on the podcast. Pod Power One.
Asked if he would like to meet with him, he replied: “I would like to meet with him. We will probably meet at some point, depending on how events develop.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before Congress on Tuesday that negotiators did not offer Iran the lifting of sanctions in exchange for reopening the strait.
“Right now, all that has been discussed with them is that… any lifting of sanctions is conditional, meaning it must be in exchange for the reason those sanctions were imposed in the first place, which is their nuclear program,” he said.
“The war is over,” he said in another tense exchange with a senator, as lawmakers on the committee questioned the U.S. strategy for ending the conflict.
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- US and Iran are close to reaching an agreement to extend the ceasefire, according to Vice President JD Vance
- The US attacks targets in southern Iran and Tehran calls it a “serious violation” of the ceasefire that “will not go unanswered”
