Live updates: Follow the latest news on US-Iran war
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were hit by renewed Iranian strikes on Friday, as the US prepares to send thousands of additional troops to the region despite reports of indirect talks with Tehran.
Two of Kuwait's ports were attacked, authorities said, with no casualties reported.
The Shuwaikh Port near Kuwait City was “subjected to an attack by hostile drones”, according to Kuwait's Port Authority. It said there was some material damage but no casualties after “emergency procedures were activated”. Shuwaikh is Kuwait's main commercial port.
Shortly afterwards, Mubarak Al Kabeer port came under attack, Kuwait's Ministry of Public Works said in a statement. It said the port's infrastructure was subjected to a double attack “by hostile drones and cruise missiles”. Initial reports revealed “material damage with no human casualties”, the statement added.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defence also said on Friday it intercepted 13 drones in nine hours, all of them in the Eastern Province. Six ballistic missiles were launched towards Riyadh, the ministry said in another statement carried by the state news agency SPA.
“Two missiles were intercepted, while the other four fell into the Arabian Gulf and uninhabited areas,” the ministry said.
The attacks come amid reports of indirect messages being relayed between Tehran and Trump's administration by Pakistan, aimed at reaching a deal to end the war that has engulfed the Middle East.
There have been mixed signals from both the US and Iran about their openness to negotiations but also a readiness to ramp up the fighting.
The Iranian government has not requested a 10-day pause on strikes on its energy plants and has not delivered a final response to a US plan to end the war, The Wall Street Journal reported, quoting mediators.
Mr Trump said on Thursday that he was giving Iran, at its request, another 10 days to negotiate before he bombs its energy plants, extending a five-day deadline he announced earlier this week. The new deadline is Monday, April 6.
“As per Iranian government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8pm, Eastern Time,” wrote Mr Trump in a post on Truth Social.
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well,” he added.
Iran has denied that talks with the US were already under way. State media said the regime would be the one to decide when and how the war ends.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister said on Thursday that “indirect talks” were taking place through messages relayed by Islamabad, with Egypt and Turkey also playing a mediation role.
A source told Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency that Tehran sent its response to the US 15-point peace proposal on Wednesday night.
The talks are being held as fighting continues. The Israeli military said it struck ballistic missile production sites and air defence systems across Iran overnight.
Iranian media also reported strikes on residential areas in Tehran, Qom and Urumia, as its death toll from the US-Israel attacks reached more than 1,900 people.
Some experts have suggested that Mr Trump's grace period for bombing Iran's power plants was announced so that the Pentagon could prepare for a ground invasion of Iran.
The US is considering sending at least 10,000 more troops to the region in the coming days, Axios and The Wall Street Journal have reported, citing senior US defence officials.
The military build-up echoes Mr Trump's strategy of exerting pressure on Iran to accept a deal on US terms – a tactic deployed during the previous round of negotiations last month.
Iran has also lined up more than a million fighters for a possible ground battle, Tasnim news agency reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led Tehran's negotiating delegation in February, said earlier this month that Iran is well prepared for a US attack.
Asked if Iran feared a US ground invasion, Mr Araghchi told NBC News: “No, we are waiting for them. We are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.”
