Gulf hostilities flared again on Wednesday, with an Iranian missile attack damaging Kuwait’s airport and the U.S. military carrying out strikes near ​the Strait of Hormuz, as diplomacy between Washington and Tehran showed little progress.

The latest flare-up, which sent oil prices up more than 1%, comes with the conflict stalemated in a shaky ‌ceasefire and the Strait of Hormuz largely closed, more than three months after initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, Reuters reported.

Flights at Kuwait International Airport were suspended and diverted elsewhere until further notice, the state news agency said, citing aviation authorities, after an Iranian drone and missile attack on its T1 building.

The attack caused injuries and severely damaged some airport facilities, it added, but gave no further details. Kuwait Airways suspended operations after the attack, the airline said in a statement.

Bahrain’s army intercepted three missiles and several ​drones, it said in a statement.

Earlier, the U.S. Central Command said two Iranian missiles shot at Kuwait fell short or broke up in flight, while several ballistic missiles aimed at regional targets failed ​and three missiles heading for Bahrain were intercepted.

Since the conflict began, Iran has repeatedly attacked targets in the Gulf region home to U.S. military bases.

Central Command ⁠said the U.S. military also downed Iranian drones targeting civilian ships in regional waters and U.S. forces in Kuwait, and carried out strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz following attempted attacks by Iran.

Iran’s ​state media said the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, as well as an airbase and helicopters in an unspecified regional country.

It sent missiles and drones in response ​to what the IRGC described as a U.S. attack on a communications tower south of Qeshm.

Central Command said all the attacks failed, however, and U.S. forces stayed ready to repel “unwarranted Iranian aggression.”

Last week, Iran and the United States said they had reached a tentative initial agreement to halt the war, but they have yet to sign off on the deal.

Iranian media said Tehran has not communicated with Washington for several days, but U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations had not stopped.

“The conversations between us ​have been going on continuously, including four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, one day ago, and today,” he said in a social media post.

DISCUSSIONS ON NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said he ​is close to a deal to end the fighting and allow negotiators to tackle thorny issues, including the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump has said his top priority is to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies it is developing a ‌nuclear bomb and ⁠says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.

Tehran is seeking access to billions of dollars in oil revenues, waivers on crude exports, a lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and continued leverage over the strait, traversed by a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas traffic before the war.

Iranian media said the IRGC’s navy targeted a vessel it identified as the Panaya with missiles in response to what it said was a U.S. attack on an Iranian tanker near Hormuz.

“Disrupting the security of the Strait of Hormuz will carry a heavy price for the U.S. military,” media cited the IRGC as saying.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ​told lawmakers on Tuesday that the U.S. would agree ​to sanctions relief only if Iran agreed to ⁠give up its nuclear activity.

“The war is over,” Rubio declared during a sharp exchange with Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who disagreed.

ISRAEL KEEPS UP STRIKES IN LEBANON

The war has killed thousands since it began on February 28, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, while also causing global economic pain by pushing up energy prices.

It ​also triggered the latest round of conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with Israel pursuing its deepest incursion into Lebanon in 25 years.

On Tuesday, Israel kept ​up strikes on a string ⁠of southern towns, Lebanese security sources said, despite a U.S.-mediated partial ceasefire unveiled on Monday.

The move failed to reassure many Lebanese, 1.2 million of whom have been displaced, and an Israeli drone over Beirut kept residents on edge on Tuesday.

“Every time we return to our homes, there is a warning for us to be displaced again,” said Faten Al Chehime, who fled to a displacement camp on Monday from her home in Beirut’s southern suburbs, just two weeks after ⁠she had returned.

On ​Tuesday, the world’s largest shipping group, MSC, said two projectiles struck one of its vessels while in Iraq’s Umm Qasr port the previous ​day.

The IRGC said it carried out the attack in retaliation for a U.S. attack on an Iranian vessel in the Gulf of Oman.

Children’s agency UNICEF flagged the widening humanitarian crisis as surging transport prices and supply chain disruptions hinder life-saving aid to countries from Gaza ​to Nigeria.

Lebanon announced ​a partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel on Monday in what would amount to a limited de-escalation of a conflict that has ‌killed thousands of people and inflamed the broader U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

According to Lebanon’s embassy in Washington, the agreement would not end the conflict in that country. But it calls for Israel to refrain from strikes on Beirut and its suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, while the Iran-aligned group would halt its attacks on Israel, Reuters reported.

Hostilities in southern Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March, continued ​on Monday evening. Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel, and that no ​injuries were reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who first announced the agreement, said Hezbollah, through intermediaries, had pledged not to attack Israel. ⁠No U.S. president has ever spoken with Hezbollah, with or without intermediaries. The U.S. has designated the group as a terrorist organization.

Trump also said Israeli Prime ​Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to pull back any troops preparing to attack Beirut.

After Trump’s announcement, Netanyahu said Israel would continue military operations in southern Lebanon, where ground ​forces are pushing toward the Zaharani River, their deepest incursion in Lebanon in 25 years.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the militia would support a full ceasefire across all Lebanon as a precursor to the withdrawal of Israeli troops. He did not say whether the group would stop its strikes on Israeli territory.

Lebanon said it would seek to expand the ceasefire in talks ​with Israel in Washington on Wednesday.

That could clear the path for renewed efforts to end the three-month-old war that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. The ​process has been stuck in limbo for weeks under a fragile ceasefire as negotiators have been unable to agree on an initial framework for peace talks.

The Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on ‌March 2 ⁠as an offshoot of the broader conflict and has been entangled with it ever since.

Iran has insisted on a halt to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as a condition of any deal to end the war, while the U.S. has said the two conflicts are separate.

“The ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a statement.

IRAN THREATENS TO BREAK OFF TALKS

Iranian state media said earlier on Monday ​that Tehran was halting indirect peace negotiations with ​the U.S. and might end a ⁠ceasefire that has largely held since early April, citing the war in Lebanon.

There was no direct confirmation of the reports from Iranian officials, and Trump told an NBC reporter that he had not heard from Iran. He said in a CNBC interview on ​Monday that the peace talks had “started to get very boring” and that he did not care if they were ​over.

“I really don’t ⁠care, I couldn’t care less,” Trump said, opens new tab.

Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said he is close to signing a peace agreement but has yet to do so. Despite the ceasefire, Iran and the U.S. have exchanged strikes several times over the past week.

Meanwhile, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, Esmaeil Qaani, threatened to expand its blockade of the Strait ⁠of Hormuz ​to the Bab El Mandeb Strait, another chokepoint at the mouth of the Red Sea.

Iran has already ​bottled up maritime traffic in the Gulf that before the war provided one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, sending prices sharply higher.

Oil prices rose 4% on Monday on the heightened tensions.

A mine shaft collapse during an illegal mining operation in China’s ​southwestern Yunnan province killed five people ‌and injured one, state media reported, days after the country’s deadliest mining accident since 2009 left ​at least 82 dead.

The incident occurred ​around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday (2030 GMT on ⁠Saturday) in Yunnan’s Huize County, state ​news agency Xinhua reported, citing local authorities. ​The report did not specify what mineral was being mined.

There was only one survivor out of six ​people rescued from the site and ​sent to hospital, Xinhua said, and the person ‌was ⁠in stable condition.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the incident, which follows the May 22 deadly gas explosion ​at a ​coal ⁠mine in the northern Shanxi province. Apart from the 82 people ​killed, two remain missing and ​128 ⁠were injured.

Chinese authorities have vowed a thorough investigation into the Shanxi disaster, as preliminary ⁠findings ​uncovered unmarked tunnels, missing trackers and ​fake doors at the mining site.