Kuwait on Tuesday said that Iran launched a failed attack earlier this month on an island where China is helping build a port in the Gulf Arab country.
Kuwait said that a paramilitary Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps team tried to infiltrate Bubiyan Island in the northwest corner of the Persian Gulf near Iraq and Iran on May 1.
Four men were detained and two escaped when Kuwait’s forces disrupted the attack, it said.
Photo: Bloomberg
A statement that Iranian media attributed to the foreign ministry in Tehran said that four officers on a “conventional maritime patrol mission” had entered Kuwait’s waters because of “a disruption in the navigation system.”
It denied any hostile intent and called for the men’s release.
Bubiyan Island is home to Mubarak al-Kabeer Port, which is under construction as part of a Chinese plan to build infrastructure across the world. It also came under Iranian attack during the war.
Kuwait provided no reason for why it delayed linking the attack to Iran after initially announcing it on May 3 without any details.
The accusation came just hours before US President Donald Trump was to depart for Beijing on a high-stakes visit over the Iran war and other issues.
Trump said he would have a “long talk” about Iran with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), but added that trade would be a bigger focus.
As he left for the summit, Trump called on Iran’s leaders to reach an agreement on its nuclear program.
“We have Iran very much under control,” Trump said. “We’re either going to make a deal or they’re going to be decimated. One way or the other, we win.”
Iranian state media quoted the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as calling “baseless” the allegation by Kuwait, which came under attack by Iran in the war and during the ceasefire.
However, the allegation and ongoing attacks in the region have threatened to reignite open warfare.
The Strait of Hormuz remains in Iran’s chokehold, the US has a blockade against Iran and negotiations between the two countries appear at a standstill.
“True peace cannot be built with a literature of humiliation, threats and coercive score-settling,” Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, wrote on X on Tuesday.
With the risk of the conflict breaking out again, Israel has sent Iron Dome air-defense weapons and personnel to operate them to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said.
It was the first publicly acknowledged deployment of Israel’s military to the Emirates — home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai — and underlined the growing relationship between Israel and the UAE.
The UAE diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020. That drew criticism from Iran, long Israel’s main regional enemy.
The Israeli military declined to comment on Huckabee’s statement about the Iron Dome while the UAE did not immediately respond.
The UAE has faced Iranian missile and drone fire even after the ceasefire was reached last month.
It has been trying to signal to investors and the public that it remains open for business and safe.
In Washington, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told members of the US Congress that the US military has plenty of bombs and missiles, despite concerns about its stockpiles.
The US is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth said.
“Ultimately we control the strait, because nothing’s going in that we don’t allow to go in,” he said.
US Senator Chris Coons asked what the Trump administration’s strategy is for reopening the waterway.
“Your average American is seeing this at the gas pump every single day as the cost of gas continues to rise,” Coons said.
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