Kuwait airspace closed amid Iranian attacks

Kuwait has closed its airspace after Iran announced new attacks on the gulf country, with officials saying some flights were being diverted to alternative airports.

Flights had been circling outside Kuwait for some time before the announcement, after it said its air defences were firing at aerial targets.

Kuwait International airport took a direct hit from an Iranian strikes last week, with one person killed and dozens more wounded.

Bahrain separately sounded its missile alert sirens on Thursday, after Iran said it was attacking the US navy’s fifth fleet which is headquartered in the country.

And the US embassy in Jordan issued an alert, saying “reports indicate missiles, drones, or rockets are in Jordanian airspace”.

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Updated at 02.14 EDT

Key events

The US-Iran ceasefire is more like a “lesser fire”, UN secretary-general António Guterres has said, urging all parties to “work towards a diplomatic settlement”.

“We should not minimize the risks of lesser fire becoming full fire,” Guterres said in his post on X.

double quotation markThe Middle East is being pulled deeper into crisis & the consequences reach far beyond the region.”

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Kuwait resumes air traffic with flights set to resume

Kuwait’s civil aviation authority has announced that air traffic has resumed after it was suspended due to Iranian attacks.

Officials earlier announced that some flights were being diverted to alternative airports, after Kuwait said its air defences were firing at aerial targets.

In its statement, the civil aviation authority said Kuwait’s international airport was working normally, with flights set to resume.

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As the story of the US-Iran war is written direct to social media, Donald Trump may be the genre’s premier unreliable narrator.

On Wednesday in the Oval Office, Trump warned of a fierce response to Iran’s missile and drone attacks on US allies in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, but also said that a deal was within reach.

“We’re gonna hit ’em again hard today … and we’ll see what happens with a deal,” he said. “We’re really close to a deal but they keep on tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers.”

The barrage and whiplash of White House claims of imminent deals and then threats that “a whole civilization will die tonight” have kept Trump squarely where he wants to be – dominating the news cycle – but they have also increasingly eroded trust in his declarations, even in life-and-death issues concerning a war.

Donald Trump gives remarks in the Oval Office. Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/Pool/Aaron Schwartz – Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

Other leaders appear to be playing on the credibility gap within the US administration. Trump said he planned to tell Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to retaliate against Iran this week, but when Israel did strike Iran, he claimed in a BBC interview that the “missiles had already gone”. He later denied that Netanyhau had defied him, adding that when he tells Netanyahu “to do something, he does it”.

Similarly, the US president has repeatedly threatened Tehran with airstrikes on its civil and energy infrastructure – a campaign that many international observers have characterised as a potential war crime – but then repeatedly reverted to diplomacy or ultimatums with two-week windows that are soon forgotten.

The Trump administration is once again stuck, unable to translate its military superiority into political acquiescence, with little indication of movement on the ground in negotiations other than the president’s own volatile posts to Truth Social.

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In his interview with CNN, Brett McGurk also offered some insight into the thinking behind the Trump administration’s actions this week, and why they may have so clearly telegraphed that another attack was coming on Thursday.

double quotation markWhat they’re trying to do is manage that escalation, to basically say to Iran, we’re going to respond, this is coming, but this is not a restart of the campaign we started in February.”

But McGurk notes that everything coming from Iran is “escalatory”.

double quotation markI’m seeing nothing from the Iranians right now suggesting they’re on the verge of a deal.”

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Updated at 02.12 EDT

Brett McGurk, who served in senior national security positions in the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, has told CNN that the strikes today were highly “telegraphed”, indicating that the US is perhaps “trying to put a ceiling” on the action today.

double quotation markIf these strikes are designed to pressure Iran into doing a deal, I don’t think that objective will be met.”

McGurk said that if the US is attempting to “shape the battlefield” to help ships get through the strait, then these strikes have “tactical merit”. But he adds they are unlikely to make a deal more likely.

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Updated at 02.11 EDT

Twenty-two countries, including the United States, Australia and European nations, jointly warned Iran on Thursday to stop attacking people “on our soil”.

In a joint statement released before the US launched its second round of strikes on Iran, the countries condemned Iranian security services for their “deplorable” use of international and local criminal gangs for plots in Europe, North America and Australia.

double quotation markAttempts to kill, kidnap, harass, intimidate, or otherwise attack people on our soil, undermines national sovereignty and international norms. These actions must stop immediately.”

The countries accused Iran of being behind a campaign of attacks across Europe targeting Jewish communities, Iranian journalists and US journalists.

The statement singles out an Iran-linked group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), which has claimed responsibility for attacks targeting Jewish communities in the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The torching of ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in north London was one of a string of attacks across Europe. Photograph: Guy Bell/Shutterstock

HAYI reportedly said it was responsible for the stabbing of two Jewish men and a series of arson attacks on synagogues and community sites in north London over recent months.

Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador to Australia in August last year, accusing Tehran of directing at least two antisemitic attacks: an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne and the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney.

Canberra also withdrew the Australian ambassador to Iran and suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran.

The statement was issued by Albania, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the US.

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Updated at 02.07 EDT

Kuwait airspace closed amid Iranian attacks

Kuwait has closed its airspace after Iran announced new attacks on the gulf country, with officials saying some flights were being diverted to alternative airports.

Flights had been circling outside Kuwait for some time before the announcement, after it said its air defences were firing at aerial targets.

Kuwait International airport took a direct hit from an Iranian strikes last week, with one person killed and dozens more wounded.

Bahrain separately sounded its missile alert sirens on Thursday, after Iran said it was attacking the US navy’s fifth fleet which is headquartered in the country.

And the US embassy in Jordan issued an alert, saying “reports indicate missiles, drones, or rockets are in Jordanian airspace”.

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Updated at 02.14 EDT

Thursday’s strikes are more evidence that Iran has the leverage in the negotiations with the Trump administration, according to Dan Shapiro, the former US ambassador to Israel.

double quotation markIt is Trump that is desperate for them to sign the agreement, as his statements reveal, and Iran that is dragging their feet.”

In a post online, Shapiro says that the strikes will reinforce for Iran that “time works in their favor”.

double quotation markA deal that punts nuclear negotiations to a second phase and requires some sanctions relief is a lousy deal – and still the least bad available alternative.”

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Updated at 02.08 EDT

Welcome

Welcome to our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

The US has launched a second round of airstrikes, after Donald Trump warned that Tehran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations, and Iran responded with strikes targeting Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

The US assault across multiple Iranian cities came as efforts to negotiate an end the war again appeared stuck, with Iran insisting it would maintain its chokehold on the strait of Hormuz.

It was the second consecutive day of back-and-forth strikes between the US and Iran, testing the limits of the shaky two-month ceasefire.

Here are the day’s main developments:

• US Central Command said it had “completed” its latest round of airstrikes just before sunrise in Iran. It said the strikes targeted “Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense sites” and were carried out by the US air force, Marines and navy.

• The sounds of explosions echoed around Tehran, the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas along the strait of Hormuz.

• Iran responded by launching strikes on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

• Kuwait closed its airspace as its air defences fought off the attack. Kuwait’s directorate general of civil aviation said flights were being diverted to other airports, without elaborating.

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had fired ballistic missiles at a US command centre in Jordan, according to state media.

• Iran’s UN envoy said the US should refrain from threats of force if it wants a deal.

• Israel early on Thursday warned residents in the north to seek shelter after the detection of suspected incoming fire from Lebanon.

• The international benchmark for crude oil traded above $93 a barrel on Wednesday, up more than 25% since the start of the war.

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Updated at 02.06 EDT