Iran fires missiles and US strikes Iran facility after reports of faltering peace talks
Wednesday, 3 June 2026
Middle East
The US military said on Tuesday (local time) that Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait and Bahrain failed or were shot down, and that the US launched strikes on an Iran facility in response.
US Central Command said the strikes were on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island, near the Strait of Hormuz, that is home to a desalination plant.
Iran had fired missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, but failed to hit their targets, the US said. The two fired at Kuwait fell apart en route, while US and Bahrain forces intercepted the missiles aimed at Bahrain.
The activity happened after Iran stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the US and Israel, according to reports on Tuesday from two semi-official Iranian news agencies. President Donald Trump disputed the claim and said talks were continuing.
The reports by the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came as tensions flared in Israel’s separate-but-related fight against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, told The Associated Press that Iran had not communicated at all on Tuesday after saying that a ceasefire needed to be enforced in Lebanon for negotiations to continue.
Israeli drone strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 11 people, including a man along with his son and daughter, the state-run news agency said, a day after Trump said Israel and the militant group Hezbollah agreed to dial back fighting.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, launched dozens of projectiles and drones toward Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and Israeli cities and towns in recent days as Israel's airstrikes killed dozens, including women and children, in Lebanon. Hezbollah did not carry out any attacks on Israel after Trump's announcement.
The ongoing hostilities – despite Trump's announcement and a nominal ceasefire that began in April – are deepening displacement for Lebanon’s conflict-weary population. They also are a significant sticking point in negotiations to extend a ceasefire in the US-Israeli war in Iran, as the Islamic Republic wants any such deal to end fighting in Lebanon, too.
Earlier Trump called reports of a cessation in talks “false and erroneous.”
“The conversations between us have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago and today,” Trump said in a social media post. “Where they lead, one never knows, but as I told Iran, ‘It’s time, one way or another, for you to make a Deal.“
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not address the reported cutoff in communications as he testified at a congressional hearing in Washington. Instead, he sounded an optimistic note about the nuclear dimension of the negotiations, while cautioning that there’s no guarantee of reaching “a deal that’s acceptable”.
Iran has been trying to increase pressure on Trump over negotiations on the Iran war ceasefire and loosening the Islamic Republic’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the oil, gas and other commodities that normally pass through it. Trump then could potentially push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt or slow the advance of his forces, which have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter of a century.
The conflicts have increasingly become conjoined, as Iran insists that any potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon.
Israel and the US maintain the fighting in Lebanon is separate from the Iran war talks.
Meanwhile, year-on-year inflation in Iran reached a level in May unseen since World War II, underlining the economic pain average Iranians are facing. While the US is eager to ease the Islamic Republic's grip on the strait – through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime – Iran faces economic challenges as its oil-backed economy remains under a US naval blockade.
Economic pressure touched off nationwide protests in Iran in 2017 into 2018, when rising food prices sparked demonstrations that killed over 20 people and saw hundreds arrested. The next year, an increase in government-subsidised gasoline prices caused protests that saw over 300 people reportedly killed.
Then came the protests over the collapsing value of Iran’s currency, the rial, at the start of this year. They were the most intense demonstrations to shake the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution and the chaotic years that followed. Iran's theocracy met January's protests with a crackdown on demonstrators in January that killed over 7000 people, according to activists' estimates.
Now, even as hard-liners hold gun-handling workshops and organise marriages under the shadow of a ballistic missile to bolster spirits, experts note there could be new demonstrations if people find themselves priced out of feeding their families.
“I have no doubt that if Trump leaves (Iran without a formal peace deal) … most probably, we will see something like January by the end of summer because of the economic and social situations,' analyst Mohsen Jalilvand said in a video published by Iran's Fararu news website.