Kuwait's security forces on alert — as the country accuses Iran of sending an armed Revolutionary Guard team to attack Bubiyan Island. Kuwait formally accused Iran on Tuesday of dispatching an armed paramilitary Revolutionary Guard team to carry out a failed attack on Bubiyan Island on May 1 — a strategic island in the northwest corner of the Persian Gulf, near Iraq and Iran, and home to Mubarak Al Kabeer Port, a major construction project under China’s Belt and Road initiative. The accusation came just before U.S. President Donald Trump travels to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a summit at which Iran is expected to figure prominently.
Kuwait said a team of six armed Guard members tried to infiltrate the island, planning to carry out what it described as “hostile acts.” Its forces disrupted the infiltration — detaining four of the men while two escaped. One Kuwaiti security official was wounded in the incident. Among those held: two Guard naval captains, a Guard naval lieutenant, and a Guard army lieutenant. Kuwait had first announced the incident on May 3 without details, and delayed linking it to Iran until Tuesday.
Kuwait accused the team of planning to carry out “hostile acts” on Bubiyan Island — home to a China-funded port project that had already come under Iranian attack during the war.
— Associated Press
Israel deploys Iron Dome to the UAE
The Kuwait accusation came alongside a separate and significant disclosure: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee confirmed publicly that Israel sent Iron Dome anti-missile batteries and personnel to the United Arab Emirates to defend the country during the war. The acknowledgment — made at a Tel Aviv conference and echoed the previous evening by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz — marks the first publicly acknowledged deployment of Israel’s military to the Emirates, and underlines the deepening defense relationship between two countries long united in their wariness of Iran.
The UAE has faced Iranian missile and drone fire even after the ceasefire and has been signaling to investors and the public that it remains open and safe. It has also closed Iranian government-linked sites in the country since the war began.
Bahrain sentences two dozen on Iran charges
Also on Tuesday, prosecutors in Bahrain announced that at least two dozen people had been handed prison sentences on charges including espionage and conspiring with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard — three of them sentenced to life. Bahrain has sentenced dozens on Iran-related charges since the start of the war, with authorities alleging that Iran maintains cells carrying out espionage and target identification on the island.
- Source: AP
