Drone strike on Kuwait airport strains fragile Gulf ceasefire

KUWAIT CITY: A drone strike on a passenger terminal at Kuwait International Airport killed an Indian national and injured 63 others on Wednesday, as fighting between Iran and US forces in the Gulf intensified and placed further pressure on a ceasefire agreed on April 8.

Kuwait's military described the strike as an act of criminal Iranian aggression. India’s foreign ministry said one of its citizens had been killed and several others were among the wounded. The airport attack came amid renewed exchanges linked to a conflict that followed US-Israeli strikes on Iran and has continued despite the truce largely holding apart from intermittent fire.

The Gulf Cooperation Council also condemned the attacks. In a statement carried by Anadolu, GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi denounced Iranian attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait and said they amounted to a dangerous and unprecedented escalation. He said the attacks had targeted civilian sites, infrastructure, headquarters and diplomatic missions, and reflected what he called hostile policies against the security, stability and sovereignty of GCC states.

Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways later resumed operations after safety steps were taken, the civil aviation authority said. Oil prices rose nearly 2% as the latest violence added to concerns over disruption in the region, with the Strait of Hormuz remaining largely closed more than three months after US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Conflicting accounts over the airport strike

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had not targeted Kuwait’s airport and, according to Iranian state media, blamed the damage on US interceptor missiles that missed their intended targets. The US military rejected that account and said Iranian drones had deliberately targeted the airport.

Earlier, Iranian media reported that the Revolutionary Guards had attacked the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, a US airbase and a vessel identified as Panaya. US Central Command denied that its bases had been struck and said Iranian ballistic missiles had failed to hit their targets in the region.

CENTCOM said it had carried out a new round of defensive strikes in southern Iran, hitting missile launch sites and Iranian boats it said were trying to lay mines. It also said strikes were conducted on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz following attempted Iranian attacks.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran would answer any attack with force. According to local news agency ISNA, he said the Iranian nation had shown that threats against Iran would no longer come without cost and that any aggression would face what he described as a decisive, regrettable and proportionate response.

Rubio says US offensive phase has ended

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that Washington’s military campaign against Iran, codenamed Operation Epic Fury, had ended and that any further US action would be defensive rather than part of a continuing offensive operation.

Rubio said the United States was no longer carrying out sustained strikes inside Iran to degrade its military because the operation was over. He said Washington had destroyed Iran’s defence industrial base, sharply reduced its missile launchers and drone stockpile, destroyed what remained of its air force and eliminated its conventional navy.

Speaking during the hearing, Rubio said: We're no longer conducting sustained strikes inside of Iran to degrade their military, because Epic Fury is over.

"Those are all gone. So, I consider that victory, and we did, too. And that was the purpose of Epic Fury," he added.

Iran links wider conflict to Lebanon front

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said any attack on Beirut would trigger a full-scale resumption of the Middle East war, as Israel continued operations against Hezbollah. Iranian news agencies quoted him as saying in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV that the war involving Iran, Israel and the United States could not be separated from the conflict in Lebanon.

"Any attack on Beirut will have grave consequences and will lead to a full-scale resumption of the war," Araghchi said, adding that Iran’s armed forces were ready to strike Israel if Beirut came under attack. He also said an end to the war in Lebanon would require the withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas they had occupied.

His remarks came as Israeli and Lebanese diplomats were due to hold a second day of direct talks in Washington, part of a fourth round of negotiations since fighting in Lebanon began when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader. Hezbollah opposes the direct talks.

Before the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNBC that he and US President Donald Trump shared the goal of disarming Hezbollah and demilitarising Lebanon. Trump, who has said preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is his top priority, said in a podcast released on Wednesday that Iran had agreed not to have a nuclear weapon and that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was involved in negotiations. Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Trump also said he had urged Netanyahu to stop the fighting in Lebanon and acknowledged calling him crazy during a heated exchange. Netanyahu told CNBC that he and Trump had tactical disagreements but agreed on the main issues concerning Iran.

The broader war has killed thousands, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, and disrupted energy supplies and shipping globally. On Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and hit a car just south of Beirut, while Israel said it had intercepted a hostile aircraft likely launched by Hezbollah.