US intercepts fresh Iranian attacks as peace talks stall

U.S. and Iranian forces traded fresh attacks overnight, at the end of a week that saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the shaky ceasefire started and little progress toward an interim peace deal.

The U.S. Central Command said it headed off multiple Iranian missiles and drones in the Persian Gulf and responded with attacks on radar sites in the Islamic Republic, in a statement posted on social media late Friday. There were no reports of damages.

Six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted and another failed to reach its intended target, hours after four drones headed to the Strait of Hormuz were shot down, Centcom said. It added the U.S. military struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island in return.

The escalation in tensions comes as Washington and Tehran fail to make headway in negotiations to extend the truce by two months, open the Strait of Hormuz and pave the way for more in-depth talk over Iran's nuclear program. Several sticking points remain, including the release of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian financial assets and a parallel ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is set to visit Tehran on Saturday, the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency reported, citing a person familiar with the matter it did not identify.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has insisted for months that Iran was near its breaking point, conceded Friday that the country retains some missile and drone capacity. In an interview with NBC News, he said about 21-22% of Tehran's missile arsenal remains.

"It's a lot of missiles, but it's not what it was when we first attacked," he told the television network during a visit to Wisconsin.

Earlier Friday, he told reporters the U.S. is "having great success with Iran," and "they're in no position to have a nuclear weapon."

The ceasefire saw its biggest test on Wednesday, when Iranian strikes killed one person at Kuwait's main airport and injured dozens. Bahrain was also attacked and the U.S. struck an oil tanker headed to the Islamic Republic. Kuwait, a staunch U.S. ally, has been one of Tehran's main targets during the truce agreed in early April.

Fighting between Israeli troops and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia continued on Saturday. Hezbollah earlier this week rejected a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that had been announced by the State Department just hours before.

Iran has demanded a ceasefire in Lebanon before an accord can be reached with the US. A military adviser to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei told CNN that "the ball is in Trump's court" when it comes to a deal.

Trump is under pressure to reach an agreement that allows for a normalization of shipping transit through the crucial Hormuz choke point, whose shuttering since the start of the war led oil prices to spike and prompted fears of an inflationary wave. The rising cost of fuel, a sensitive topic for American voters, threatens to punish Trump's Republican party at midterm elections due in months.

The president again downplayed the higher cost of oil on Friday. "People thought it was going to be a lot worse," he told reporters. "Today I looked at $96 a barrel, people thought that was going to be $300 a barrel."

West Texas Intermediate crude ended the week above $90 a barrel and global benchmark Brent closed near $93. While contracts have eased from earlier peaks since the war began on Feb. 28, they remain significantly above levels before the conflict.

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(With assistance from John Harney, Derek Wallbank and Veena Ali-Khan.)

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This story was originally published June 6, 2026 at 1:55 PM.