Iran and the U.S. trade strikes in the Persian Gulf, further testing the ceasefire

Thomas Warrick, senior fellow at Middle East Security Initiative, discusses current diplomatic difficulties between the United States and Israel.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait briefly shut its main airport Wednesday after Iranian drones heavily damaged a terminal building, killing one person and wounding dozens — the latest in back-and-forth attacks by Tehran and Washington that have tested a fragile ceasefire.

Semiofficial Iranian news agencies have said the country had stopped communicating with mediators about extending the ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel. A regional official said Tehran wanted a separate fragile in Lebanon enforced before returning to talks. U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations continued.

The talks have dragged on for weeks, and exchanges of strikes in the Gulf region and Israel’s broadening war with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon are further strains.

Iran maintains its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial waterway for the world’s oil and natural gas — and the U.S. continues its blockade of Iranian ports. Global fuel prices remain high and the effects of the conflict are felt well beyond the region.

An Indian national is killed at Kuwait’s main airport

Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi said “a number of hostile drones” targeted a passenger building at Kuwait International Airport.

Authorities said one person was killed and 63 wounded, including passengers and workers. Health Ministry spokesman Abdullah Al Sanad said some suffered serious injuries. India’s embassy said the person killed was an Indian national.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said the country reserves the right to respond to Iran and it will “neither accept nor tolerate” the attacks.

The airport partially reopened later, according to civil aviation authorities. Kuwait Airways flights resumed from a different terminal. No other flights would be operating, they said. The airport only reopened Monday after closing early in the war that began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Iran fired two missiles at Kuwait that fell apart en route, and it “downed multiple drones” targeting American forces in the country.

The military also said U.S. and Bahraini forces intercepted missiles aimed at the Gulf kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet. Bahrain’s Defense 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 U.S. military facilities in another country, but did not name Kuwait.

Both the U.S. and Iran said they were retaliating for earlier attacks or attempted attacks.

The U.S. 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 U.S. strikes on Qeshm 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.

A senior Emirati diplomat called for “a firm, unified, and cohesive Gulf position” against Iran following the attacks.

“This aggression does not target a specific state, but rather all of us,” Anwar Gargash wrote on the X platform.

Trump calls reports of cessation in talks `false’

Iran’s Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to the Guard, have reported that Iran’s negotiators have stopped communicating with ceasefire mediators as tensions flare in Israel’s separate but related fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, told The Associated Press that Iran had not communicated on Tuesday after saying that a ceasefire needed to be enforced in Lebanon for negotiations to continue.

Trump called reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous.”

“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago and today,” Trump said in a social media post. “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal.”’

The war is increasingly tied to Israel’s war in Lebanon

Israeli forces have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter of a century while Hezbollah has launched rocket and drone attacks. The declared ceasefire in Lebanon is officially in place. No side has formally withdrawn or declared the ceasefire over, but attacks continue.

Lebanon has emerged as a key sticking point in Trump’s efforts to sign a ceasefire deal with Iran. Tehran insists that any larger potential truce must also quell the fighting in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to keep the issues separate and is under heavy domestic pressure to strike Hezbollah as he prepares for new elections this fall.

The fighting has exposed a rift between close allies Israel and the U.S., with the U.S. pushing for restraint and Israel seeking to step up military pressure on Hezbollah.

A person familiar with the situation said Netanyahu and Trump had a “tense” conversation earlier this week. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media. The person didn’t elaborate on the details of the call.

Jon Gambrell and Samy Magdy, The Associated Press

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Sam Mednick in Jerusalem, and Aamer Madhani and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.