Fresh attacks in the Middle East on Friday threatened to tear apart an already fragile US-Iran ceasefire, even as US officials confirmed that Tehran’s footballers had received visas for the World Cup.
Weeks of complex talks marked by threats and outbreaks of violence have failed to secure an agreement to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for global energy flows.
A ceasefire in the Middle East war, triggered nearly 100 days ago by US and Israeli strikes that wiped out Iran’s top leadership, has been in effect since April 8.
But tensions rose again on Friday when the US military said it struck radar sites in Iran after shooting down drones headed for the strait.
Shortly afterwards, air raid sirens were heard in the neighboring Gulf countries of Kuwait and Bahrain, both US allies, and AFP correspondents in both countries heard explosions.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said early Saturday that they had targeted “enemy bases in the area” with missiles in response to a US “invasion” of the country’s Sirik and Qeshm islands.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran fired seven ballistic missiles towards Kuwait and Bahrain.
CENTCOM said six of the missiles were shot down while the seventh “failed to reach its intended target”.
“There are currently no reports of harm to US personnel, and Iranian claims of damage to the US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain are false,” the command said in a statement.
The latest outburst came despite the United States moving forward with allowing Iran’s national soccer team to travel to the FIFA World Cup, which it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed the issuance of the visas, saying “sport transcends borders and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world.”
However, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that visas had not yet been issued to some members of the team’s “technical and executive staff”.
An unnamed US administration official said in a statement: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to bring terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”
The team will fly from Turkey to Spain on Saturday before traveling to their base camp in Mexico, arriving on Sunday.
– Trade strikes –
Earlier on Friday, CENTCOM said its forces also shot down four Iranian drones headed for the Strait of Hormuz before striking Iranian coastal radar installations in Goruk and Qeshm Island.
“Attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” while attacks on radar installations “protected against further attacks,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
Iranian state television IRIB reported early Saturday local time that “several explosions were heard” in Sirik in southern Iran around 2:30 a.m. (23:00 GMT Friday).
“Following the invasion of the terrorist and child-killing US army in Sirik and Qeshm Island, enemy bases in the region were hit by aerial missiles,” IRIB reported, citing the Guard after US strikes in Iran.
Kuwait’s military said early Saturday it was responding to “hostile” missile and drone attacks, days after an attack on the country’s international airport killed one and wounded dozens.
“Kuwaiti air defenses are currently responding to hostile missile and drone attacks,” the military said in X, without specifying their origin.
US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Friday that Iran still retains roughly “21, 22 percent” of its missile stockpile, despite repeated claims by US officials that Tehran’s military capacity has been crippled.
That figure was higher than the 18 percent Trump gave in May.
– Lebanon asks for ‘mercy’ –
Efforts to turn the cease-fire into a lasting solution have repeatedly stalled as the conflict rattled global markets and increased political pressure on Trump at home ahead of midterm elections.
“The negotiations are at an impasse, and Trump must break this impasse,” Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN in an interview on Friday as he called for the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
Lebanon – which was drawn into the Middle East war when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 – called on Friday for Iran to stop interfering in its affairs.
Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah exchanged attacks after a new ceasefire deal was flatly rejected by the group.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam addressed Iran’s leaders in frank terms during a press conference, saying: “Have mercy on our south, don’t treat it and its people as just a bargaining chip.”
“We are the people of a sovereign nation that refuses to serve as… an open battleground for their wars.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took aim at similar criticism from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun early on Saturday, calling on him to save Lebanon from its “real enemy”.
Iran, in its peace negotiations with Washington, has insisted that the fighting in Lebanon and the war in the Gulf are inextricably linked.
