LIVE – Middle East: Iran fires missiles towards Kuwait and Bahrain, US bombs radar sites

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An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed two women and injured 22 people on Saturday, despite a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

“The Israeli enemy’s raid against the town of Saksakiyeh, in the Saida district, on Saturday morning left two martyrs and 22 wounded, including three children and a woman,” the ministry said in a statement.

Emergency services announced on Saturday the death of ten people in strikes on the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army announced that it had killed a “cell commander” of the military branch of Hamas.

In Gaza City, a drone strike killed eight people and injured 15 others in the Jawazat displacement camp, according to Civil Defense, a first aid organization operating under the authority of the Islamist movement Hamas.

The al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City said it had collected eight remains. The hospital and Civil Defense published a nominative list of the dead, three of whom have female first names, without specifying their ages.

A nurse was killed in a strike on her way to work, her employer, Hiram Hospital, in southern Lebanon, said. Several localities in this area were bombed, according to the Lebanese National Information Agency. And Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli soldiers, also in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army announced Saturday evening the death of two of its soldiers following the fighting between it in southern Lebanon and the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah. Captain Shahar Gamla, 23, died on Saturday after being seriously injured in southern Lebanon, where Sergeant Ohad Yaari died on Friday at the age of 21, a military statement said.

These deaths bring to 17 Israeli losses since the entry into force, on April 17, of a ceasefire with Hezbollah which now only exists on paper: 14 soldiers and one civilian working for the army killed in southern Lebanon and two other soldiers in northern Israel.

The Israeli army announces having struck “around 150” positions of the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah in 48 hours in southern Lebanon. Among the targets are in particular “weapons depots, headquarters, launchers” of missiles or rockets, indicates an Israeli military press release.

The Lebanese President, Joseph Aoun, denounced the “incessant Israeli attacks, which remain unpunished” despite the ceasefire supposed to be in force.

Tehran carried out strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain in response to American attacks despite the ceasefire, further undermining negotiations which are slipping, particularly on the issue of frozen Iranian assets. Since the truce of April 8, hostilities had almost ceased between the United States and Iran. But they have recently resumed, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic maritime route for hydrocarbons blocked by Tehran.

Kuwait and Bahrain, already targeted at the start of the week, condemned “blatant aggressions” committed by Iran against their territory, seeing it as “a dangerous escalation”.

The world airlines organization, Iata, said it was optimistic about the “resilience” of Gulf airlines. “I think that when the Gulf Cooperation Council countries regain some calm, they will have to be active to see some of these passengers pass through their respective platforms,” indicated the Africa and Middle East regional director of the International Air Transport Association, Kamil Alawadhi. However, the Gulf companies, he continued, have the means to get through this crisis. “There are certain companies which take out loans”, some in particular benefiting from low interest rates from their government. The leader of Iata estimated that their cash flow should allow them to get through the crisis without necessarily needing states to compensate for losses.

Iran has denounced new American strikes against radar and coastal surveillance installations in the Gulf, which according to Tehran constitute a “blatant violation of the ceasefire”. It is “a military aggression against the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, adds the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release, condemning “the hostile and provocative behavior of the American regime”.

They are not making progress but negotiations are still underway between Tehran and Washington. The Supreme Leader’s military adviser called on Trump to release $24 billion in Iranian funds abroad. For Antony Dabila, associate researcher at Cevipof, this request shows that Iran “needs oxygen at the financial level”.

A strike in southern Lebanon killed three Lebanese soldiers, the army announced in Beirut on Saturday, with President Joseph Aoun denouncing the “incessant Israeli attacks, which remain unpunished” despite the ceasefire theoretically in force. “A brutal Israeli airstrike targeted a military vehicle on the road” between Khardali and Nabatiyé, “resulting in the death of two officers, a brigadier general and a captain, as well as a soldier,” the Lebanese army wrote in a statement.

The United States has refused to grant visas to 15 people from the Iranian delegation sent to the FIFA World Cup in North America (June 11-July 19), according to Iranian state television.

“Visas have been issued for the national team and the technical staff, but 15 members of the administrative and management team are facing problems and have not yet received their visa from the United States,” a special envoy from the United States said on Saturday. channel in Türkiye, where the players are currently located.

Kuwait condemned “a dangerous escalation” after Iranian strikes on Saturday against its territory and Bahrain, calling them a “direct threat” to the “lives of citizens and residents”. These attacks “represent a dangerous escalation” and “constitute a flagrant violation of state sovereignty,” the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Iran has denounced what it considers to be “discriminatory treatment” after the United States refused to issue visas for the Football World Cup to several members of the national team management. “Why don’t you say that visas were refused to a large part of the management and supervisory staff, technical advisors and other people who are an integral part of the national team?”, wrote on X the Iranian embassy in Turkey, calling these refusals “the highest level of intentional discriminatory treatment” against it.

She thus responded to a statement from the American ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who announced that the players and the “necessary support staff” had obtained their visas for the United States, the Iranian selection having to play its first match in the competition on June 15 in Los Angeles against New Zealand.

Michel Derczansky, journalist specializing in the Middle East, commented this Saturday morning on LCI on the latest events in the war in the Middle East, in particular the Iranian attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait. “Iran reaffirms that it has its power to cause harm, that American bases should leave the Arab monarchies, (…) that it is the essential player in the region in terms of geostrategic power,” he declared.

The military advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader, Mohsen Rezaï, declared that negotiations between Washington and Tehran were stumbling in particular over the issue of Iranian assets frozen abroad, in a television interview broadcast on Friday.

Iran has been the subject of US sanctions for decades which penalize its economy and financial system. The country also saw its foreign assets frozen following the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

“If he (Donald Trump) wishes to reach an agreement with Iran, these 24 billion dollars constitute a test” of confidence, estimated Mr. Rezaï, according to comments in English translated from Persian, taken from an interview with the American channel CNN.

There are no official figures for frozen Iranian assets, but local media recently estimated the amount to be in the range of $100 billion to $123 billion.

Iran conditions any agreement with the United States on the release of part of these assets to put a lasting end to the war in the Middle East.

Bahrain, already targeted at the start of the week, denounced the strikes carried out by Iran against its territory and neighboring Kuwait, saying it had intercepted seven missiles. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns these new attacks,” he wrote in a press release. “This blatant aggression constitutes a clear violation of the sovereignty of both countries,” he added.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards said during the night that they had fired, in retaliation for American strikes, ballistic missiles towards the Ali Al-Salem air base in Kuwait, where American aircraft are stationed, and the headquarters of the Fifth American Fleet in Bahrain.

The Lebanese army announced the death of several of its members in an Israeli strike in the south of the country, despite the ceasefire theoretically in force in Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah. “Several soldiers, including an officer,” were killed “in a brutal Israeli attack which targeted one of its vehicles on the road linking Khardali-Nabatiyé,” the army said in a statement.

The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, on Saturday called on Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who had called on Tehran the day before to no longer “intervene” in the affairs of his country, to “save” Lebanon against its “real enemy”, Israel.

“From Mr. Aoun’s words, one might believe that it is Iran which has occupied a fifth of Lebanon, displaced a quarter of the Lebanese and bombs its country daily,” Mr. Araghchi wrote on X, referring to Israel without naming it. “If Lebanon had been a bargaining chip for Iran, we would have reached a deal a long time ago. Save Lebanon from your real enemy, Mr. President,” he added.

Iran fired seven missiles against Kuwait and Bahrain, the American army announced on Saturday, specifying that six had been intercepted and that the last had not reached its target. “Iran fired seven ballistic missiles towards Kuwait and Bahrain (…) according to initial assessments, six were intercepted and a seventh did not reach its intended target,” the US military wrote on had no injuries in its ranks at this stage and denying any damage to any of its infrastructure in Bahrain.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had earlier claimed to have struck “enemy bases” in the region after US bombing of radar installations in Iran.

Explosions were heard near the airports of these countries before Iran confirmed the sending of missiles.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced this morning that they had attacked “enemy bases” in the region, after American bombings on radar installations in Iran. In a statement relayed by state television Irib, Iran’s ideological army said that “enemy bases in the region were hit by aerial missiles.” Kuwait and Bahrain, two countries that host major US military bases in the Gulf, had previously issued air alerts.

The American army announced on Friday that it had bombed, in “self-defense”, radar sites in Iran after having shot down four Iranian drones which, according to Washington, threatened civilian maritime traffic in the region.

American forces “downed four drones (…) launched towards the Strait of Hormuz”, which “represented an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic”, wrote the American military command for the Middle East (Centcom) on Iranian coastal surveillance radars in Goruk and Qeshm Island to defend against further attacks,” Centcom added. “US forces remain vigilant and ready to respond, in self-defense, to any unjustified aggression by Iran,” he continued.

Kuwait’s anti-aircraft defenses face missiles and drones on Saturday, the Gulf country’s army announced, three days after an attack on its airport blamed on Iran. “Kuwaiti anti-aircraft defenses are facing attacks from hostile missiles and drones (…) any explosion that could be heard is the consequence of the interception of hostile targets by the anti-aircraft defense,” the army wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran had “21 to 22%” of its missiles left, in an interview with NBC, after more than three months of war in the Middle East.

“They have a few missiles, they have a few drones. I would say in percentage maybe 21, 22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we launched our first attack”, he declared in a first extract broadcast by the channel, the interview to be broadcast in its entirety on Sunday. The American president had nevertheless affirmed at the beginning of May that Tehran remained “18 to 19%” of its stock of missiles.

“Most of the drone factories have been destroyed, most of the launch pads have been destroyed and most of the missile manufacturing sites have been destroyed,” he added on Friday.

Welcome to this live commentary dedicated to the situation in the Middle East.