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Middle East crisis live: Kuwait reports missile and drone attack as Trump claims war will ‘all work out well’ | US-Israel war on Iran
Iran ‘really wants to make a deal’, says Trump, and war ‘will all work out well’
Donald Trump has said “Iran really wants to make a deal”, in a new post on Truth Social, while also taking aim at critics of his efforts to secure an agreement with Tehran.
Don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively “chirping,” at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever. Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!
The US president’s post makes no mention of the attack on Kuwait, or the US strikes on Iran over the weekend.
Key events
Iran’s chief negotiator has said the US are not complying with the ceasefire following US strikes strikes on Iran over the weekend.
“The naval blockade and escalation of war crimes in Lebanon by the genocidal Zionist regime are clear evidence of US noncompliance with the ceasefire,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a post on X. “Every choice has a price, and the bill comes due. It will all fall into place.”
Iran responded to the US strikes by targeting Kuwait with drones and missiles.
Israeli airstrikes overnight on southern Lebanon left six people dead, including a Syrian citizen in a village near the city of Nabatiyeh, AP reports, citing Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
The Israeli military meanwhile said it had intercepted two projectiles launched from Lebanon toward Israeli territory, as well as a suspicious aerial target in the area where Israeli soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported, the military said.
Hezbollah said it carried out rocket and missile attacks on northern Israel on Sunday.
Israel continued to strike the city of Tyre in the south of Lebanon over the weekend.
An Israeli strike near a hospital in the city wounded 13 staffers, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Israel put widespread evacuation warning in place in Lebanon, including for Tyre. A few thousand people remain in the small old city, with some sleeping in their cars.
Photos show the aftermath of strikes on the city after Israel stepped up its offensive over the weekend.
US forces have helped dozens of commercial vessels through the strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, according to the New York Times, citing US officials.
US Central Command has guided around 70 commercial ships through the strait over the last three weeks, one of the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The officials said that most of the vessels had turned off their transponders to avoid detection.
The officials declined to say what type of vessels were going through and what route they took. Ships passing near Iran without obtaining Iranian approval face the threat of attack. Shipping analysts said the US-guided crossings appear to follow routes that are closer to Oman.
Before the war, well over 100 commercial ships a day passed through the strait. Because US-guided crossings take place with transponders turned off, shipping analysts said they could not independently verify how many passages have taken place.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said there were currently no exchanges with the United States over the details of Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“We know when it is necessary to act on nuclear matters. No negotiations have taken place on the details of the nuclear file. At this stage, our priority is ending the war,” foreign ministry spokesman Baqaei said in a weekly press briefing.
Iran foreign ministry says ceasefire in Lebanon remains condition for US deal
Iran’s foreign ministry said that a ceasefire in Lebanon remains a key condition for any deal with the United States.
“We insist that a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a weekly press briefing, as Israel expands its offensive in Lebanon.
A delay in the diplomatic process to end the US-Iran war can be explained by a lack of trust, Washington’s contradictory positions and Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, Baqaei said.
“Negotiations have started amid severe suspicion and mistrust, and the exchange of messages is taking place in this atmosphere,” he said.
“The other party is constantly changing its views and putting forward new or contradictory demands … it is natural that this situation will prolong negotiations,” he said, adding that Tehran viewed Israeli actions in the region, including in Lebanon, as inseparable from the US.
Referring to strikes by the US on Iran overnight, Baqaei said “US aggressive action” is a violation of the ceasefire and it led to Iran to target positions in Kuwait from which the US attack originated. He said Iran will “take whatever measures we deem necessary to defend Iran’s national security,” AFP reported.
Israel PM says strikes ordered on Beirut’s southern suburbs
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz on said they had ordered strikes on the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut. Dahiyah is Hezbollah’s stronghold in the Lebanese capital.
“In light of the repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon by the terrorist organisation Hezbollah and the attacks on our cities and citizens, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz have instructed the IDF to strike terror targets in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut,” a joint statement from Netanyahu and Katz said.
As Iran struck Kuwait, it released a video showing footage of the ballistic missile launch.
The start of the video includes a close-up of what looks to be a sticker on the body of a missile depicting a bruised US president Donald Trump, on the phone asking for help, and overlaid on a “closed” Strait of Hormuz. The caption reads: “Until the last American soldier leaves the region.”
The video has been shared on channels affiliated with the Iranian regime, including on the official IRGC Telegram.
The UN security council is set to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to address the fighting in Lebanon.
The meeting was requested by France, whose president Emmanuel Macron said “nothing justifies the major escalation under way in south Lebanon”, calling for an end to fighting.
Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on 2 March when Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader. A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on 17 April, but has never been observed. Both sides accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other’s alleged breaches.
Over the weekend, Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to push deeper into Lebanon and called Sunday’s operation a “dramatic shift” in the campaign against Hezbollah.
Multiple media outlets have reported that on Sunday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the ongoing diplomatic negotiations and asserted that Hezbollah must be the first to cease its attacks.
Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun has said that his country is facing “a vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression”, after Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah with the capture of the medieval Beaufort Castle.
Aoun condemned the Israeli offensive in a post on X and pledged to “work to end the suffering of the Lebanese people, and people in the south in particular”.
European leaders have condemned Israel’s expanding incursion into Lebanon, after Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to push even deeper into the country.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah, which has a strong political presence in southern Lebanon and has launched thousands of missiles and drones into northern Israel. Israel’s campaign has forced more than a million people from their homes, while 3,300 people, including dozens of children, have been killed.
Oil prices rose about 2% in Asia on Monday, as the lack of progress in negotiations between the US and Iran kept traders on edge.
The fresh attacks between the US and Iran nudged Brent up 2.1% to $93.02 a barrel, while US crude added 2.6% to $89.61.
Trump is under pressure to reopen the strait of Hormuz and get petrol prices down ahead of the November midterm elections, as US 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.
Without a sustained diplomatic agreement – and with tensions in the strait of Hormuz still high – we’re likely to see continued violations of the ceasefire, says Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of an Iran branch of Israeli military intelligence.
Citrinowicz, now a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, says that neither the US, nor Iran, appear to be seeking a return to open war, but risk “a crisis neither side originally intended” if these confrontations and miscalculations continue.
In other words, the greatest danger may not be a deliberate decision to go to war, but a gradual escalation driven by recurring incidents in an increasingly volatile environment.”
