Ceasefire Tested as US and Iran Exchange Strikes, Israel Bombards Southern Lebanon

A fragile ceasefire is under severe strain as the United States and Iran exchanged military strikes, and Israel intensified its bombardment of southern Lebanon. The latest escalation follows Iranian state media reports that Tehran's negotiators had ceased communication with ceasefire mediators amid rising tensions linked to Israel's conflict with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

A regional official involved in mediation efforts, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that Iran had no contact with mediators on Tuesday after insisting that a ceasefire in Lebanon must be enforced before negotiations could proceed. President Donald Trump dismissed reports of a halt in talks, calling them "false and erroneous." He wrote on Truth Social that conversations have been ongoing continuously, including in recent days, and urged Iran to make a deal.

In Kuwait, which hosts several U.S. military installations, officials briefly shut down the country's main airport on Wednesday after what authorities described as "a number of hostile drones" heavily damaged a terminal building.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi reported one fatality and dozens of injuries.

Kuwait's Foreign Ministry stated the country reserves the right to respond to Iran and vowed it would "neither accept nor tolerate" the attacks. Civil aviation authorities later partially reopened the airport, with Kuwait Airways resuming flights from a different terminal.

The airport had only reopened on Monday after being closed earlier in the conflict. Meanwhile, the U.S.

military announced it had carried out strikes against an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged targeting the headquarters of the U.S.

Navy's 5th Fleet and other American military facilities in the region, though it did not specifically name Kuwait. Both Washington and Tehran described their actions as retaliatory responses to earlier attacks or attempted attacks.

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. strikes, stating that a telecommunications tower on Qeshm Island was hit, calling the attacks "acts of aggression" and accusing the U.S.

of violating the ceasefire. A senior Emirati diplomat called for a unified Gulf response to Iran, writing on X that "this aggression does not target a specific state, but rather all of us." At the same time, Israel launched additional strikes south of Beirut just hours before a second day of U.S.-hosted talks with Lebanon was scheduled to begin in Washington.

A U.S.-brokered agreement reached Monday called for Israel to halt strikes in Beirut's southern suburbs while Hezbollah would end attacks targeting northern Israel. The deal came just hours after Israel announced plans for a major wave of strikes across densely populated neighborhoods near the Lebanese capital, which would have marked the most intense bombardment since a ceasefire took effect on April 17.

The State Department said negotiators made progress during the first day of talks on Tuesday. Lebanon is pushing to expand the ceasefire nationwide, while Israel is demanding Hezbollah be disarmed immediately before ending military operations in Lebanon and withdrawing troops from dozens of towns and villages.

Shortly after a strike in Khaldeh, the Israeli military said it intercepted what it described as a hostile aircraft launched from southern Lebanon. Israel did not immediately blame Hezbollah, and the militant group has not claimed any cross-border attacks since the agreement took effect.