Kuwait briefly shut its main airport after Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal, killed one person and wounded dozens — the latest in back-and-forth attacks by Iran and the US that test a fragile ceasefire.
The strike reinforced the risks to residents and travellers in Gulf countries that had considered themselves relative havens before the war, now in its fourth month.
Talks have dragged on for weeks as mediators seek a more enduring truce in the US-Israeli war with Iran. They are increasingly strained by Israel’s broadening war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
A regional official said Iran wanted a separate ceasefire in Lebanon enforced before returning to talks. US President Donald Trump said negotiations continue.
The fighting in Lebanon has also exposed a rift between Israel and the US, which is pushing its ally for restraint. In a measure of the friction, Trump acknowledged that he'd called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “crazy” during a phone call earlier this week. Nonetheless, both men say their rapport is solid.
Iran maintains its hold on the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial waterway for the world’s oil and natural gas and related products like fertiliser — and the US continues its blockade of Iranian ports. Global fuel prices remain high, and the effects of the conflict are felt well beyond the region.
In Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio huddled for three hours at the White House Monday as Trump worked on “that final piece” of getting commerce flowing. Rubio, meanwhile, faced grilling in Congress over the war and its economic fallout.
An Indian national is killed at Kuwait's main airport
A spokesperson for Kuwait's Defence Ministry, Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, said “a number of hostile drones” targeted a passenger building at Kuwait International Airport. It had opened only Monday (local time) after a months-long closure because of the war, which began February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
India’s embassy said the person killed was an Indian national. Authorities said 63 were wounded, including passengers and workers, and some suffered serious injuries.
Kuwait's Defence Ministry said it destroyed over a dozen missiles and a similar number of drones from Iran.
The airport partially reopened later, with Kuwait Airways flights resuming at a different terminal, according to civil aviation authorities. No other flights were operating.
The Foreign Ministry said Kuwait will “neither accept nor tolerate” the attacks and was kicking out two Iranian diplomats. Such expulsions are an established means of communicating international ire.
US and Iran say they are retaliating for earlier attacks
The US military said two Iranian missiles fell apart en route to Kuwait and that it “downed multiple drones” targeting American forces in the country.
The military also said US and Bahraini forces intercepted missiles aimed at the Gulf kingdom, home to the US Navy’s 5th fleet. Bahrain’s Defence Ministry said its military intercepted and destroyed three missiles and a number of drones fired by Iran.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that it targeted the headquarters of the 5th Fleet and US military facilities in another country, but did not name Kuwait.
Both the US and Iran said they were retaliating for earlier attacks or attempted ones.
The US military also said it launched strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the US strikes on the island, where it said a telecommunications tower was struck, and other previous strikes. It called them “acts of aggression” that it said violated the ceasefire.
The war is increasingly tied to Israel’s fight in Lebanon
Israeli forces have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter-century, while Hezbollah has launched rocket and drone attacks. The declared ceasefire in Lebanon is officially in place, and no side has formally withdrawn or declared it over even as attacks continue.
Iran insists that any larger potential truce must quell the fighting in Lebanon. Netanyahu wants to keep the issues separate and is under domestic pressure to strike Hezbollah as he prepares for elections this fall.
In a podcast interview released Wednesday (local time), Trump confirmed a report that he had called Netanyahu “crazy” in a phone conversation peppered with an expletive. Trump told The New York Post’s Pod Force One that he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fight with Hezbollah was holding back talks with Iran.
Still, Trump said his relationship with Netanyahu was good, and “we’ve worked very well together”.
Netanyahu responded that he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements” but have “common goals” and “agree on the main things”.
“He respects me. I respect him. We always find a way to work out our differences,” the prime minister said in an interview on the American business-news channel CNBC.
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