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The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar all reported likely Iranian drone attacks on May 10, amid signs that the ceasefire is about to collapse.
The Emirati defense ministry said that Iran launched two drones at the Gulf country, and both were “successfully engaged.”
Kuwait’s military also said that it had detected and dealt with several hostile drones, without specifying the origin of the drones.
“At dawn today, the armed forces detected a number of hostile drones in Kuwaiti airspace, which were dealt with in accordance with established procedures,” the general staff of the army said on X.
In addition, the Qatari defense ministry announced that a cargo vessel was attacked by a drone in Qatari waters northeast of Mesaieed port as the ship traveled from Abu Dhabi in the UAE, causing a limited fire that was contained. No injuries were reported and the vessel continued on its journey toward the port.
Iran attacked the UAE more than once in recent days, and even warned of a “crushing response” if any actions were launched from the country, the escalation against Kuwait and Qatar came as a surprise.
United States President Donald Trump on May 11 made it clear that he was not pleased with Iran’s latest proposal, declaring the ceasefire is on “life support.”
“It’s unbelievably weak,” Trump says of the ceasefire while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, after he earlier rejected the proposal submitted by Iran over the weekend for a permanent ceasefire.
Trump claimed that Iranian negotiators told their American counterparts that they were prepared for the U.S. to retrieve the Islamic Republic’s stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium, but then refrained from putting that concession in the response paper submitted over the weekend.
“Two days ago, they said, ‘You’re going to have to take it.’ We were going to go with them. But they changed their mind because they didn’t put it in the paper,” Trump said.
Trump claims Iran’s negotiators said that the uranium stockpiles are difficult to retrieve due to American strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites last year, and that only the U.S. or China have the tools capable of pulling it out from deep underground.
He also claimed that Iranian negotiators had also “guaranteed [that they wouldn’t obtain] nuclear weapons for a very long period of time,” only to leave that out of the Islamic Republic official proposal as well.
Asked whether he still thinks he can make a deal with the current regime, he responds in the affirmative, while adding that it is comprised of moderates who want to reach an agreement and “lunatics” who want to keep fighting.
While it is clear that some progress was made, it is also clear that the U.S. and Iran are still far off on the most basic of issues.
The latest Iranian strikes shows that the Islamic Republic is keeping its finger on the trigger, and while Tehran won’t be firing the first shot, it is guaranteed to strike back with full force if the U.S. and Israel end up resuming the war under any pretext whatsoever.
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