Updated
May 28, 2026, 9:08 a.m. ET
Iran fired a ballistic missile toward Kuwait early on Thursday, the U.S. military said, as an overnight exchange of attacks dimmed hopes that an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war would be signed soon.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had targeted a U.S. base in retaliation for American strikes on southern Iran, the second round of attacks this week. According to the U.S. Central Command, Kuwaiti forces intercepted the Iranian missile. The United States has five military bases in Kuwait, which accused Iran of launching an attack.
The strikes underscore the fragility of negotiations, after Washington and Tehran suggested in recent days that they were close to a narrow agreement to allow commercial shipping to resume in the strait. On Wednesday, President Trump reiterated that he did not want the waterway to be under Iranian control after an Iranian state media report said Tehran would manage the waterway in cooperation with Oman.
In a statement, the Guards did not specify which base it had targeted but said it was aimed at an American installation from which the U.S. strikes originated. Further U.S. strikes would be met by an even “more decisive” response, the Guards added.
In its strikes, the United States downed four attack drones that a U.S. official said Iran had launched over the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. military also struck a drone control station in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas before Iran could fire a fifth drone, said the American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Trump signaled that he was prepared for protracted negotiations and was indifferent to the domestic political pressure caused by the unpopular war. Iranian officials “thought they were going to outwait me,” he said, adding, “I don’t care about the midterms.”
The Treasury Department said on Wednesday that it had added Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, an organization that Tehran launched last week to oversee the waterway, to its sanctions list. The Treasury described the Iranian authority as an extortion attempt.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Strikes in Lebanon: The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had carried out a strike in Beirut, the first time in three weeks it has hit the Lebanese capital, and targeted Tyre, a city in southern Lebanon. The resurgence in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, has complicated the broader peace efforts because Iran wants any deal to cover Lebanon.
Oman threat: Mr. Trump on Wednesday warned Oman, a U.S. ally that has acted as a mediator with Iran, not to enter into any agreement with Tehran to share control of the Strait of Hormuz and threatened to bomb the country if it did. He later said he did not believe the United States would have to take such action. Read more ›
Energy markets: Oil prices jumped after the latest hostilities. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose more than 2 percent on Thursday to about $94 a barrel for August delivery. Read more ›
Iran’s leadership: In a written statement on 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.
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