Shaky Iran ceasefire challenged again with missile attack in Kuwait

HEADLINES IN BRIEF

The shaky ceasefire in the Iran war is challenged again as Kuwait faces a missile attack. READ MORE BELOW

US President Donald Trump says no single country will have control over the Strait of Hormuz. READ MORE BELOW

An Israeli strike hits a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut. READ MORE BELOW

Russia calls on the US and Iran not to slide back into armed conflict, but to continue talking.

The US will be shutting down both Iranian airlines’ access to landing spots, refueling, and ticket sales, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will visit Washington on Friday where he will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

US Treasury sanctions Iran authorities overseeing the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices bounced higher on Thursday after new US strikes on Iran.

IN DETAIL

Shaky ceasefire in Iran war challenged again as Kuwait faces missile attack

The US military on Thursday slammed Iran for violating a fragile ceasefire after Kuwait reported coming under attack in the latest flare-up that threatened ongoing negotiations to end the war.

US Central Command said that Kuwait had intercepted missiles launched by Iran late Wednesday night, calling the Iranian attack on one of America's top allies in the Persian Gulf an "egregious ceasefire violation".

Kuwait had earlier announced an attack on its territory, and Iran said it had retaliated for strikes earlier in the week by firing on a US base in a Gulf state it did not name.

Kuwait's Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned Iran for what it called "blatant aggression".

The US and Iran have traded strikes throughout the week, even as President Donald Trump has said he's confident his administration is making headway in negotiations with Iran to end the war.

On Monday, the US said it conducted what the Pentagon called "defensive" strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.

US officials said late Wednesday in Washington that forces launched more strikes on Iran, shooting down four one-way attack drones that it said posed a threat around the strait and hitting an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard via the state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged the attack around Bandar Abbas International Airport and said it launched its own retaliatory attack on the air base that launched the assault, without specifying whether the attack referenced had targeted Kuwait.

Kuwait's military announced its air defense systems intercepted incoming missiles and drones on Thursday, without providing further details on what had been targeted.

Home to the US Army Central's forward headquarters as well as air bases and a naval base, Kuwait repeatedly came under fire from Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq before the April ceasefire.

Trump: No country will have control over the Strait of Hormuz

Trump has repeatedly said the end of the war is close but told the media at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday he was not yet satisfied by the negotiations and that the US was not discussing easing sanctions, one of Tehran's demands.

He dismissed an Iranian state TV report about an unofficial draft of an agreement to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to prewar levels within a month, with Iran and Gulf state Oman jointly managing traffic.

Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, with which the US has decades-long military and economic ties.

"Nobody's going to control (the strait)," Trump said. "It's international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up. They understand that, they'll be fine."

Oman has not said anything about the idea of joint control of the strait with Iran, with which it says it has discussed freedom of navigation. Tehran expressed solidarity with Oman after what it called "US officials' threats".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards reasserted their control of the strait, saying they had stopped two vessels and let 26 through in the past 24 hours. More than 100 ships would pass daily on average before the war.

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a letter to parliament that Iran had emerged strengthened by the war and urged legislators to preserve national unity, repair damage and address hardship, inflation and corruption, state media said.

Tehran was insisting on the United States releasing Iranian funds, the deputy secretary of its National Security Council, Ali Bagheri Kani, said, according to a Tasnim report.

Iran is also seeking an end to a US blockade on its ports and the lifting of sanctions, which the US Treasury Department said on Wednesday it had extended by adding Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, set up to manage passage through the strait.

Foreign vessels passed freely through the waterway before the war under international legal guarantees.

Israel carries out strike on Beirut suburbs

An Israeli strike hit a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Thursday, the first strike to hit near Beirut in weeks amid a ceasefire that has failed to halt fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

The Israeli military said it had conducted a precise strike in Beirut but did not offer additional details.

Two Israeli security sources said the target was Ali al-Husseini, whom they described as head of the missile division within the Imam Hussein Division, a militia that Israeli officials say is aligned with Hezbollah and Iran.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or Iran on the attack.

The strike dealt another blow to a fraying ceasefire announced by Washington on April 16 that was meant to halt the war raging between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah since March 2.

Exchanges of fire between the two longtime foes have continued, but have been mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon.

Apart from a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs in early May that killed a Hezbollah commander, the capital and its suburbs had been spared new bombardment during the truce.

Heavy Israeli strikes hit towns and villages in southern Lebanon overnight and into Thursday, after Israel declared a new swathe of the area "a combat zone".

The Israeli military said residents should leave any towns south of the Zahrani River, which runs about 40 kilometres north of Israel's border with Lebanon.

Together with a border zone occupied by its troops, Israel's evacuation orders over the last three months span about 2,000 sq km of Lebanon – about a fifth of the entire country.

An Israeli strike on Thursday morning killed six people including two children and their parents near the southern town of Adloun, Lebanon's health ministry said.

Another strike, on the port city of Sidon, killed five people including two women.

Sidon lies outside of the area designated as a combat zone by the Israeli military, and the strike was carried out without warning.

Another Israeli strike later on Thursday killed two Syrian nationals, including a child, in the city of Tyre, which falls within the zone Israel said must be emptied.