Kuwait says Iran launched drones; Israeli PM approves talks with Lebanon

Kuwait accused Iran and its proxies of launching drone attacks targeting it on Thursday despite the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, as Saudi Arabia said recent attacks damaged a key pipeline in the kingdom.

The statement from Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry, carried by the state-run KUNA news agency, put new pressure on the ceasefire ahead of planned talks Saturday between the United States and Iran in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said the drone attacks “targeted some vital Kuwaiti facilities” Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an anonymous official, acknowledged a recent attack in the war that damaged its crucial East-West pipeline. That pipeline carries oil out to the Red Sea and avoids the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran maintains a chokehold on despite the pause in the fighting.

While insisting that Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon would continue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had authorized direct talks with Lebanon focused on disarming Hezbollah and “the formalization of peaceful relations” between Israel and Lebanon.

“In light of Lebanon’s repeated requests to open direct negotiations with Israel, I instructed the Cabinet yesterday to initiate direct talks with Lebanon as soon as possible,” Netanyahu posted on X, adding: “Israel appreciates the call made today by the Prime Minister of Lebanon to demilitarize Beirut.”

Israel and Lebanon have not held direct talks with a goal of normalizing relations since U.S.-mediated talks in 1983, which led to an agreement that quickly collapsed.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter will lead the negotiations for Israel, a person familiar with the details said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Netanyahu’s announcement came as he otherwise appeared to ignore international calls to respect President Donald Trump’s two-week truce agreement with Iran, and to extend the pause in fighting to Lebanon.

However later Thursday, The Associated Press reported U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the ceasefire, writing on his social media platform: “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz.”

“That is not the agreement we have!” Trump wrote.

Israel on Thursday continued its bombing campaign against Hezbollah after unleashing some of its heaviest attacks on Beirut a day earlier. Those strikes drew a wave of international condemnation.

“We continue to strike Hezbollah with force, precision, and determination,” Netanyahu posted earlier Thursday morning. “Our message is clear: Whoever acts against Israeli civilians — will be struck. We will continue to strike Hezbollah wherever required, until we restore full security to the residents of the north.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told reporters Thursday that he had requested Lebanese military and security forces “immediately reinforce the state’s full control” over Beirut, including by ensuring weapons were in the hands of only “legitimate security forces.”

Salam’s statement apparently was a response to the Israeli military’s assertions that Hezbollah was operating deeper in Beirut and elsewhere outside the militant group’s strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Last month, as Israel stepped up its military operations against Hezbollah, Lebanese officials, in a diplomatic scramble from Beirut to Paris to Washington, called for a ceasefire, support for the Lebanese military to seize Hezbollah’s arsenal and eventual direct peace talks with Israel “under American sponsorship,” an adviser to President Joseph Aoun said at the time.

Pakistan, which helped broker this week’s ceasefire between Tehran and the White House, said originally that the halt in hostilities included Lebanon. And senior Iranian officials warned Thursday that Israel’s continuing onslaught could derail the tenuous truce.

Already Iran said it was pausing plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz because of Israeli attacks.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces inflicted heavy destruction in a 10-minute aerial barrage on over 100 targets, including in the center of Beirut, the capital, for the first time in weeks. More than 300 people were killed in the attacks, according to Lebanese authorities.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X that Israel’s attacks Wednesday have made it “hard to argue that such heavy-handed actions fall within self-defense.”

“Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the war,” she said, “but Israel’s right to defend itself does not justify inflicting such massive destruction.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, posting Wednesday on X, held the Israeli prime minister personally responsible and called for Lebanon’s inclusion in a ceasefire. “Netanyahu launches his harshest attack against Lebanon since the offensive began,” Sánchez wrote. “His contempt for life and international law is intolerable.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that the Israeli military killed more than 200 Hezbollah militants the day before, bringing the fatalities to more than 1,400.

“The Hezbollah terrorist organization is desperate for a ceasefire, and its Iranian patrons are also applying pressure and making threats — out of heavy fear that Israel will crush Hezbollah,” Katz said.

Vice President JD Vance chalked the disagreement over Lebanon’s inclusion in the ceasefire up to a “legitimate misunderstanding,” telling reporters: “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t.”

• The Washington Post and Associated Press contributed.