The Peace That Wasn’t: US Bombs Iranian Territory as Kuwait Comes Under Fire
The ceasefire in the Iran war has been violated for the third time. US warplanes struck Iranian radar and drone command sites on Qeshm Island and in the city of Goruk over the weekend. Hours later, Kuwait was under missile and drone attack. The talks carry on. So does the bombing.
The first thing to understand is that there is no longer a ceasefire in any meaningful sense. There is a word for a ceasefire that collapses three times in two months, and that word is “war.”
Over the weekend of May 30 and 31, American warplanes bombed Iranian territory. US Central Command — CENTCOM, in the language the military prefers — announced that it had conducted what it called “self-defense strikes” against Iranian radar and drone command-and-control facilities in two locations: the city of Goruk in southern Iran, and Qeshm Island, the large island in the Strait of Hormuz that has been a flashpoint since the war began.
The US says it acted because Iran shot down an American MQ-1 drone that was flying over international waters. According to CENTCOM, American fighter aircraft “eliminated Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones.” The word “eliminated” is military language for “blew up.” The strikes happened on Saturday and Sunday.
This is the third time the April ceasefire has been broken. The first violation came on May 7, when the US and Iran exchanged fire after the US said three of its destroyers were targeted in the Strait of Hormuz. The second came last week, when the US struck missile launch sites and boats it said were attempting to lay mines in the waterway. On both previous occasions, both sides played down the significance. The ceasefire limped on. This time feels different.
The war that will not end began on February 28, 2026. On that day, the United States and Israel launched a coordinated air campaign against Iran. The strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. In the weeks that followed, Iran retaliated with missiles and drones aimed at Israel and at American military bases across the Middle East. The region was alight. Six weeks of open conflict left thousands dead, the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, and global oil markets in chaos.
A ceasefire was brokered in early April. It was a fragile thing, more a pause in the shooting than a peace. Both sides were exhausted. But the underlying problem had not been solved: the United States wanted Iran to give up its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran wanted the bombing to stop and the sanctions to end. Neither got what it wanted.
Since the ceasefire, the Trump administration has pursued a dual strategy. Diplomats have been talking — Pakistan has been acting as mediator, shuttling proposals between Washington and Tehran. A memorandum of understanding has been drafted. It reportedly includes a 60-day cessation of violence, a framework for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and a process for negotiating Iran’s nuclear program. Trump himself has been making edits to the document, with his changes focused on the Strait and on the destruction of Iran’s enriched uranium.
But while the diplomats have been talking, the military has been acting. The blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz has continued. US warships patrol the waterway. Ships trying to break through are stopped — one Gambian-flagged cargo vessel was disabled in the Gulf of Oman by a Hellfire missile to its engine room. And now American bombs are falling on Iranian soil again.
What makes this weekend’s strikes significant is where they hit.
Qeshm Island is the largest island in the Persian Gulf. It sits in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Whoever controls Qeshm controls the Strait. The island was attacked earlier in the war — a desalination plant was hit in March. This is the second time it has been bombed.
Goruk is a city in Hormozgan province, in southern Iran, not far from the coast. These are not random targets. These are the eyes and ears of Iran’s ability to monitor and contest the Strait of Hormuz. Hitting radar and drone command sites here is about one thing: control of the waterway.
Iran responded as it always does. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched a retaliatory strike on an airbase that it claimed the US had used to launch the attacks. The IRGC said the US had been targeting a telecoms tower on Sirik Island, a small island in the Strait of Hormuz. The exact base the IRGC struck was not specified, but the message was clear: if you hit us, we hit back.
Then came Kuwait.
On Monday morning, June 1, air raid sirens began to sound across Kuwait. The state news agency KUNA confirmed it. Emergency alerts were sent to every mobile phone in the country, warning of “imminent danger.” Civilians were told to stay indoors, away from windows and open areas.
The Kuwaiti army’s General Staff announced that air defense systems were “intercepting hostile missile and drone attacks.” Explosions were heard across the country — the sound of Patriots and other anti-air systems engaging incoming threats. Local reports placed much of the activity around Jahra, west of Kuwait City.
Kuwait has been caught in this war from the beginning. It hosts around 13,000 American troops, as well as Italian and Canadian military personnel. When Iran retaliated against the US-Israeli strikes in February, Kuwait was hit. Iranian missiles and drones have been targeting the country on and off ever since. In March, Iran struck Kuwait International Airport and hit fuel storage tanks. The country has been on a war footing for months.
This latest attack came hours after the US bombs fell on Qeshm and Goruk. The connection is not difficult to draw. Iran’s IRGC has made clear it considers any Gulf state hosting American forces a legitimate target. When the US hits Iran, the Gulf states pay the price.
What comes next is unclear, which is the most dangerous thing about the current situation.
Both sides are negotiating. Both sides are bombing. The Trump administration says it wants a deal. It also says it will keep striking Iranian targets in “self-defense.” Iran says it wants the bombing to stop. It also says it will keep retaliating. These two positions cannot both be true for long.
The numbers tell the story. Three ceasefire violations in two months. A blockade that has been running for six weeks. Negotiations that have produced a draft document but no signature. The war began in February because the United States and Israel decided that the threat of a nuclear Iran could no longer be managed through sanctions and diplomacy. Four months and thousands of deaths later, the threat has not been removed, the Strait is not open, and the bombs are still falling.
The polite thing would be to say that the ceasefire is under strain. The honest thing is to say that it has already failed. What we have now is not war and not peace, but something in between — a state where bombs fall and diplomats talk, where civilians are told to stay away from windows, and where the men in Washington and Tehran insist, with straight faces, that everything is going according to plan.
It never does.
Sources: CENTCOM statement (via Reuters, AA), The Guardian liveblog (June 1, 2026), Al Jazeera liveblog (June 1, 2026), CBS News live updates (May 31, 2026), KUNA (Kuwait state news agency), Kuwait Army General Staff statement.