Iran fires missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain, U.S. strikes Iran facility in response : NPR

Folks collect on paddleboards in shallow water as cargo and repair vessels are anchored within the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026.

Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA through AP

cover caption

toggle caption

Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA through AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. navy mentioned Tuesday that Iran fired missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain that failed or had been shot down, and that the U.S. launched strikes on an Iranian facility in response.

Iran fired missiles towards Kuwait and Bahrain, however didn’t hit their targets, the U.S. mentioned. The 2 fired at Kuwait fell aside en route, whereas U.S. and Bahraini forces intercepted the missiles geared toward Bahrain.

U.S. Central Command mentioned it responded with strikes on an Iranian navy floor management station on Qeshm Island within the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard mentioned it had focused the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s fifth Fleet in Bahrain and one other nation in its assault, with out naming Kuwait. It mentioned it launched its assault in response to the U.S. firing a missile into the engine room of one other oil tanker making an attempt to succeed in Iran regardless of the U.S. blockade.

“We had beforehand warned that in case of aggression, the response can be totally different and extra extreme, and we acted accordingly,” the Guard mentioned in its assertion.

Central Command additionally mentioned it “downed a number of drones” launched by Iran focusing on American forces in Kuwait.

The assaults occurred after Iran stopped speaking with mediators about extending a ceasefire within the struggle with the U.S. and Israel, based on stories Tuesday from two semiofficial Iranian information companies. President Donald Trump disputed the declare and mentioned talks had been persevering with.

The stories by the Fars and Tasnim information companies, each believed to be near the Guard, got here as tensions flared in Israel’s separate-but-related struggle towards the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A regional official concerned within the mediation, talking on situation of anonymity to debate the talks, informed The Related Press that Iran had not communicated in any respect on Tuesday after saying {that a} ceasefire wanted to be enforced in Lebanon for negotiations to proceed.

Trump says talks ‘happening repeatedly’

Trump known as stories of a cessation in talks “false and faulty.”

“The conversations between us have been happening repeatedly, together with 4 days in the past, three days in the past, two days in the past, at some point in the past and as we speak,” Trump mentioned in a social media put up. “The place they lead, one by no means is aware of, however as I informed Iran, ‘It is time, a technique or one other, so that you can make a Deal.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn’t deal with the reported cutoff in communications as he testified at a congressional listening to in Washington. As a substitute, he sounded an optimistic word in regards to the nuclear dimension of the negotiations, whereas cautioning that there is no assure of reaching “a deal that is acceptable.”

Iran has been making an attempt to extend stress on Trump over negotiations on the Iran struggle ceasefire and loosening the Islamic Republic’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the oil, gasoline and different commodities that usually cross by it. Trump then might probably push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt or gradual the advance of his forces, which have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over 1 / 4 of a century.

The conflicts have more and more grow to be conjoined, as Iran insists that any potential truce within the struggle there should additionally quell the preventing in Lebanon.

Israel and the U.S. preserve the preventing in Lebanon is separate from the Iran struggle talks.

Inflation takes an financial toll on Iran

In the meantime, year-on-year inflation in Iran reached a stage in Could unseen since World Battle II, underlining the financial ache common Iranians are dealing with. Whereas the U.S. is keen to ease the Islamic Republic’s grip on the strait — by which a fifth of all traded oil and pure gasoline handed in peacetime — Iran faces financial challenges as its oil-backed economic system stays beneath a U.S. naval blockade.

Financial stress touched off nationwide protests in Iran in 2017 into 2018, when rising meals costs sparked demonstrations that killed over 20 individuals and noticed lots of arrested. The subsequent 12 months, a rise in government-subsidized gasoline costs precipitated protests that noticed over 300 individuals reportedly killed.

Then got here the protests over the collapsing worth of Iran’s forex, the rial, at the beginning of this 12 months. They had been essentially the most intense demonstrations to shake the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution and the chaotic years that adopted. Iran’s theocracy met January’s protests with a crackdown on demonstrators in January that killed over 7,000 individuals, based on activists’ estimates.

Now, whilst hard-liners maintain gun-handling workshops and arrange marriages beneath the shadow of a ballistic missile to bolster spirits, specialists word there may very well be new demonstrations if individuals discover themselves priced out of feeding their households.

“I’ve little question that if Trump leaves (Iran and not using a formal peace deal) … most likely, we’ll see one thing like January by the tip of summer season due to the financial and social conditions,” analyst Mohsen Jalilvand mentioned in a video revealed by Iran’s Fararu information web site.

Iran faces skyrocketing inflation

Iran’s Central Financial institution mentioned the patron worth index, which measures a basket of products and companies, reached 77.2% in Could in contrast with the 12 months earlier than. The speed is 8.5% increased than in April, the financial institution added. Inflation in each day and basic wants — like medication, taxi fares, tobacco and communication charges — rose 113.8% from the 12 months earlier than.

Folks carry packages at Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026.

Vahid Salemi/AP

cover caption

toggle caption

Vahid Salemi/AP

A personal financial suppose tank in Iran, the Bamdad Institute of Financial Research, described the present figures as “an unprecedented charge since World Battle II.” Iran’s Central Financial institution didn’t acknowledge the importance of the figures.

The earlier document got here in 1942. In the course of the struggle, the British and Soviets invaded Iran and took over its railway, disrupting meals provides. The dearth of meals, worsened by a poor harvest, sparked hyperinflation and a famine. Starvation and a typhus outbreak killed many.

Airstrikes this 12 months have tremendously broken Iran’s companies and its oil business, In the meantime, the U.S. blockade has been focusing on Iranian crude oil shipments making an attempt to succeed in the worldwide market, a key supply of laborious income. Tax revenues have been depressed by companies struggling even after the preventing paused.

The rial, which traded at 32,000 to $1 in 2015, now trades at over 1.7 million to $1.

“We will certainly have increased costs,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned in Could. “We’re preventing, and we should settle for this hardship.”

Tehran-based economist Saeed Leilaz, chatting with the AP, warned that annual inflation in Iran might attain 80%.

“Iran’s society can not tolerate above 25%” annual inflation, he mentioned.