- Trump says talks continue; Tehran says no progress has been made.
- Israel and Lebanon agree to implement a ceasefire.
- Kuwait reports 63 injured in the attacks and one airport damaged.
US President Donald Trump said negotiations on Iran could reach an outcome “over the weekend”.
“I’ve heard that the negotiations themselves are going very well,” Trump said of a potential deal. “It could happen…over the weekend,” he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Trump also said he wanted to separate negotiations on the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah from those on the war between the United States and Iran, although Tehran insists the two are linked.
“I would like to separate it, I would like to have something separate, because it is separate,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium were the focus of discussions with Tehran and expressed hope that the latest round of talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon will result in a security road map.
Washington insists Tehran must return its near-weapon-grade enriched uranium, agree to limit its nuclear activities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the main transport channel for Gulf oil and gas, for a peace deal to take effect.
Contrary to optimistic U.S. remarks, Iran’s foreign minister struck a pessimistic note, saying “no tangible progress” has been made in negotiations to end the Middle East war, as new U.S. and Iranian strikes strain a fragile ceasefire.
Kuwaiti officials said the resumption of hostilities included an Iranian drone strike on a passenger terminal at Kuwait International Airport that killed one person and injured 63 others.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said lines of communication with the United States were still open, but warned that any Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital Beirut as part of its campaign against Hezbollah would trigger a “full-scale resumption” of the conflict.
“Communications with the Americans were not interrupted and messages were exchanged on the need to end the aggression against Beirut, but no tangible progress was made in the negotiation process,” the statement said. Tasnim the news agency quoted Araghchi as saying in Lebanon Al Mayadeen Television.
“Any attack on Beirut will have serious consequences and lead to a large-scale resumption of war,” he said. “Our armed forces are ready to strike Israel if it attacks Beirut.”
“Play with fire”
The Kuwaiti military condemned the drone strike on the airport as an act of “criminal Iranian aggression.” India’s foreign ministry said the only death was an Indian national.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards denied attacking the airport and said it was “an error in US Patriot systems, which landed at the terminal after failing to intercept Iranian missiles.” The Revolutionary Guard also accused U.S. forces of provoking a response by targeting an oil tanker and communications tower on the country’s Qeshm island.
These new attacks constitute one of the most severe tests of the April 8 ceasefire, which paused more than a month of war triggered by American-Israeli bombings against Iran, and which has largely held despite sporadic exchanges of fire.
Trump downplayed the resumption of hostilities, saying that “in this part of the world, the ceasefire happens when you fire more moderately.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of “playing with fire.”
“Iran surely knows what the (American) president said, that if necessary, there will be a return to large-scale military action,” Netanyahu said in an interview with the American channel. CNBC.
Kuwait suspended air traffic and diverted arriving planes to other destinations following the drone attack on the airport, but later resumed Kuwait Airways flights.
The international airport was targeted several times during the war and only resumed full operations on Monday.
Hassan Sheikh, a 40-year-old Pakistani resident of Kuwait who lives near the airport, said he heard explosions throughout the night, adding: “For the first time, my children felt the gravity of the situation.”
