Hostilities in the Gulf escalated on Wednesday after Iranian drone and missile attacks damaged Kuwait International Airport and wounded dozens, while the U.S. military carried out strikes near the Strait of Hormuz amid faltering efforts to end the wider war.
Kuwaiti authorities and state media said one person was killed and more than 60 others were injured in the attacks, which damaged airport facilities and diplomatic missions. Flights were temporarily suspended at Kuwait International Airport before Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways later resumed operations after safety measures were put in place.
The latest flare-up sent oil prices more than 2% higher, as the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed more than three months after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
Iranian media earlier reported that the Revolutionary Guards had attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, a U.S. airbase and a vessel identified as Panaya. U.S. Central Command denied that American bases had been hit, saying Iranian ballistic missiles had failed to strike their intended targets in the region.
CENTCOM said it launched a new round of “defensive strikes” in southern Iran, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to lay mines. It also said U.S. forces struck targets on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz following attempted Iranian attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNBC that U.S. and Israeli forces were ready for any full-scale return to military action against Iran if President Donald Trump made that decision.
The latest violence has further strained a ceasefire agreed in early April. Since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, Tehran has repeatedly targeted sites across the Gulf, including areas that host U.S. military bases.
Despite the ceasefire, hostilities have continued to flare as Washington pushes to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global energy shipments. Before the war, the waterway handled roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Last week, Iran and the United States signalled progress toward a tentative initial agreement to halt the fighting and reopen the strait, but the two sides have not signed off on the deal.
Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said Tehran would not allow Washington to “overreach” in negotiations or ceasefire arrangements. In a post on X, he warned that any aggression would be met with missiles and drones.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said repeated attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain required a firm and unified Gulf response.
“The aggression does not target one country alone, but all of us,” he wrote on X.
Trump has repeatedly said since mid-March that he is close to a deal to end the fighting and move toward negotiations on more difficult issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme.
Tehran has tied any deal to an end to fighting in Lebanon. It is also seeking access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, sanctions waivers on crude exports, the lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and continued leverage over the strait.
Trump has said talks are continuing, although Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Wednesday that Tehran had not responded to Washington in recent days and that text exchanges through intermediaries had been suspended until Iran’s conditions on Lebanon were met.
In a podcast interview released Wednesday, Trump said Iran had agreed not to develop a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei was involved in negotiations.
“They’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
The war has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, while severely disrupting energy supplies and shipping. It has also triggered a new round of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, with Israel carrying out its deepest incursion into Lebanon in 25 years.
Lebanese security sources said Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday and targeted a car just south of Beirut. Israel said it intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to Reuters questions about the drone strikes. The attack near Beirut appeared to be the closest to the Lebanese capital since Trump asked Israel not to strike the city under a U.S.-mediated partial ceasefire announced Monday.
In the podcast interview, Trump acknowledged having called Netanyahu “crazy” during a reported expletive-filled phone exchange over Israel’s fighting in Lebanon as he sought a deal to contain the wider war.
“At some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this. We got to stop it,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
Netanyahu told CNBC that he and Trump sometimes had “tactical disagreements” but agreed on the main issues concerning Iran.