When Iran yesterday hit Kuwait International Airport with drones and ballistic missiles, an Indian national was killed. Dozens of people were injured and two Iranian diplomats declared personae non grata in Kuwait and must leave the country within 24 hours. Iran had also struck the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and an airbase in the region.

These were retaliatory attacks as U.S. military forces had conducted so-called self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Shortly before the escalation, the U.S. Navy disabled a Botswana-flagged oil tanker bound for Iran by firing a missile into its engine room, enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports.

The Kuwaitis will always be grateful to the Americans for the fact that G.H.W. Bush drove the Iraqis out of the country in 1991 (Congress was consulted).

On the other hand, Kuwait is a direct neighbor of Iran and maintains reasonably functional diplomatic relations—a fact due in part to the presence of a Shi’ite minority comprising approximately 30–35% of the Kuwaiti population. In Bahrain, even the majority of Bahraini nationals are Shi’ites. These individuals travel to Iran regularly—for instance, on business or on pilgrimages to Qom and, above all, Mashhad.

Consequently, it is not in Kuwait’s or Bahrain’s interest to be dragged into the war.

If Iran makes it clear that attacks are being launched from American bases located within Kuwait, this serves as a clear signal and a warning.

A ceasefire is a ceasefire. President Trump says negotiations continue to extend the Iran ceasefire, even as the U.S. launched strikes against military sites on an Iranian island.

“’We’ve been hitting them pretty hard,’ Trump said when asked by reporters on Wednesday if the ceasefire remains in place. ‘I’d say in that part of the world a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.'”

That is, of course, the expected nonsense. More can be seen here.

4 June 2026 @ 10:34 UTC+2.

Last modified June 4, 2026.