Kuwait said Tuesday that Iranian paramilitary forces attempted a failed attack on Bubiyan Island in the northwest Persian Gulf on May 1, an island where a Chinese-led port project is under construction. The accusation deepened the tension around a shaky ceasefire and came as President Donald Trump left for a Beijing summit with China’s Xi Jinping, where Iran was expected to be a central topic.
Trump told reporters he would have “a long talk” about Iran with Xi, but that trade would be a bigger focus, before adding his latest ultimatum. “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.”
Kuwait said four Revolutionary Guard members were detained and two escaped when its forces disrupted the attack. A statement Iran’s foreign ministry issued through state media called the allegation “baseless” and said four officers on a “conventional maritime patrol mission” had entered Kuwait’s waters due to “a disruption in the navigation system.” Iran demanded the men’s release.
The narrow Strait of Hormuz remains a chokepoint. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced bipartisan questions on Capitol Hill Tuesday, maintaining that the U.S. is in control of the vital oil-shipping artery despite continued Iranian threats and attacks. “Ultimately we control the strait, because nothing’s going in that we don’t allow to go in,” Hegseth said. He avoided detailing next steps in the conflict.
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, pressed the defense secretary on the administration’s strategy 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. The Pentagon’s top budget official separately told Congress that the war’s price tag has climbed from an estimated $25 billion two weeks ago to nearly $29 billion.
In a sign of shifting regional alignment, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee revealed at a Tel Aviv conference that Israel has sent Iron Dome air-defense weapons and personnel to the UAE — the first publicly confirmed Israeli military deployment to the Emirates. The UAE, which diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020, has been hit by Iranian missile and drone fire even after the ceasefire. Neither the Israeli military nor the UAE immediately commented on Huckabee’s remarks.
Meanwhile, Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Kravik met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran to demand an end to attacks on commercial shipping and the obstruction of the strait. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Kravik called Iran’s actions affecting third-party countries “completely unacceptable” and noted that Norway alone has some 25 vessels stranded.
Iranian diplomat Kazem Gharibabadi rejected the current diplomatic posture. “True peace cannot be built with a literature of humiliation, threats, and coercive score-settling,” he said on X.
Late Tuesday, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook parts of Iran, followed by several aftershocks, according to Iranian state media. Witnesses felt the temblor in Tehran, where some people sought refuge in the streets, but state TV reported no immediate casualties.