US and Iran Trade Strikes, Further Threatening Negotiations

The United States and Iran traded attacks in an overnight spate of hostilities, U.S. and Iranian officials said Thursday, potentially threatening the already fragile negotiations over the fate of the Strait of Hormuz and a lasting deal to end the war.

Iran fired a ballistic missile early Thursday toward a U.S. base in Kuwait, according to the U.S. military and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which said it was retaliation for strikes in southern Iran. Kuwaiti forces intercepted the Iranian missile, the U.S. Central Command said.

Late Wednesday, the U.S. military downed four Iranian drones and struck a drone ground-control station in Iran, according to a U.S. official who described them as self-defense — the second round of such attacks this week.

The exchange of strikes underscored the fragility of negotiations, after Washington and Iran suggested in recent days that they were close to a narrow agreement to allow commercial shipping to resume in the strait. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump reiterated that he did not want the waterway to be under Iranian control after an Iranian state media report said Iran would manage the waterway in cooperation with Oman.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also issued a direct warning to Oman, saying the Treasury would “aggressively target any actors involved” in imposing a toll system on commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement, the Guard did not specify which base it had targeted but said it was aimed at a U.S. installation from which the U.S. strikes originated. Further U.S. strikes would be met by an even “more decisive” response, the Guard added.

In other Middle East war news:

— Strikes in Lebanon: The Israeli military widened its offensive against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, in Lebanon on Thursday, striking Beirut for the first time in almost a month and pushing deeper into the country’s south. The strike has stoked fears that the city, which had largely been spared since the ceasefire in Lebanon took effect last month, could be drawn back into the fighting.

— Iran’s leadership: In a written statement Thursday, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, projected resilience and called for national unity. He made no mention of negotiations but warned broadly against internal division.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Leo Sands, Euan Ward, Qasim Nauman and Eric Schmitt/Saher Alghorra

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