News Desk
DUBAI: Kuwait has condemned Iran’s “heinous” and repeated attacks, which it described as a dangerous escalation and a direct assault on the country’s security.
“The heinous and repeated Iranian attacks … represent a dangerous escalation and a direct assault on the security and stability” of Kuwait, a statement from the Kuwaiti foreign ministry said, “not to mention the grave threat they pose to the safety of civilians and vital facilities in the country.”
The continuation and repetition of these aggressions undermine efforts aimed at de-escalating tensions and threaten security and stability in the region, the statement added.
Kuwait’s air defenses intercepted missile and drone attacks on Monday as sirens sounded across the country.
Saudi Arabia, in a statement from its foreign affairs ministry, has strongly condemned the repeated Iranian attacks against Kuwait. The UAE also issued a statement condemning the “Iranian terrorist attacks” on Kuwait with missiles and drones.
Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in a statement condemned the Iranian attacks as ‘a dangerous and unacceptable escalation.’
“These actions represent a dangerous and irresponsible escalation and a blatant violation of the sovereignty of Kuwait,” he said in the statement.
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Iran foreign ministry says US continues to violate ceasefire
News Desk
TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday that the United States had continued to violate the ceasefire, after US strikes on a southern port triggered a brief military flare-up.
“The United States is also violating the ceasefire including this morning,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a weekly press briefing, vowing that Iran will “take whatever measures we deem necessary to defend Iran’s national security.”
The US said it struck Iranian military sites at the weekend and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday it had targeted a US base in response, the latest in a series of exchanges amid negotiations to end the three-month-old war.
The strikes on Iran’s Gulf coast were in response to “aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” the US Central Command said in a post on X.
“US fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM said, adding it will continue to protect US assets and interests during the ongoing ceasefire.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday it had targeted an air base used by the US for the attack, without identifying which base.
Air defenses in Kuwait, where a major US base is located, were intercepting missile and drone attacks on Monday as sirens sounded across the country, the state news agency KUNA reported, without providing further details.
The US and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since their ceasefire took effect in early April as negotiations aimed at a more durable agreement drag on. A similar exchange occurred last Thursday and was described in similar terms by both sides.
The war launched by the US and Israel on February 28 has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, and caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices due to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran has consistently denied it has plans to do that.
Trump is under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get US gasoline prices down ahead of the November congressional elections, as voters show increasing frustration over rising prices. At the same time, he faces a potential backlash from Iran hawks in his own party over any concessions to Tehran.
The two sides remain at odds on several other issues, such as Tehran’s demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.
Israel’s war in Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia is another major impediment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for “gradual de-escalation,” a US official said.
