LIVE | Trump says he 'would like to meet' Iran leader Khamenei

(AFP) Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Wednesday night that there is "no tangible progress" in negotiations with the United States to end the war, according to an interview on Lebanese television cited by Tasnim news agency.

"Messages have been exchanged on the need to end the aggression against Beirut, but no tangible progress has been achieved in the negotiation process," he stated.

He further indicated that "the return to the negotiating table is contingent on the guarantee of the rights of the Iranian people, the end of the war in Lebanon and the reduction of tensions in the region."

(AFP) The Iranian regime warned Wednesday that an attack on Beirut would trigger a "full-scale resumption of war" in the Middle East, at a time when Israel is stepping up operations against the pro-Iranian terrorist group Hezbollah.

"Any attack on Beirut will have serious consequences and lead to a full-scale resumption of war," Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, according to an interview on Lebanese television cited by the Tasnim news agency. "Our armed forces are ready to attack Israel if it attacks Beirut," he added.

(AFP) The fate of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium is at the center of negotiations with Washington, and Tehran has yet to agree to any peace deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

"I think now, in some of the papers that have been exchanged back and forth, it's clearly addressed, but we...still don't have final sign off from their system as of this morning," Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Rubio also insisted on his assertion that the war with Iran was over, even after Iran attacked Kuwait's airport Wednesday, leaving one dead and 63 wounded in a significant escalation.

"We're no longer conducting sustained strikes inside of Iran to degrade their military, because Epic Fury is over," Rubio told the committee, asserting that the United States has achieved a victory.

(AFP) The Iranian regime's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Tehran would respond forcefully to any attack, local media reported Wednesday, after the Revolutionary Guards announced they had attacked Kuwait in retaliation for U.S. bombings.

"Today, the Iranian nation, in its battle against the United States and the Zionist regime, proved that the era of gratuitous threats against Iran is over and that any aggression will be met with a decisive, regrettable and proportionate response," Ghalibaf said, according to the local ISNA news agency.

Kuwait demanded that two Iranian embassy staff leave the country within 24 hours on Wednesday after an Iranian attack on the country's airport that killed one person and injured dozens more.

Kuwait's deputy foreign affairs minister Hamad Suleiman Al-Mashaan summoned Iran's charge d'affaires in Kuwait, Hamed Hamid Yaqoubi Far, and "handed him an official protest note regarding the continued Iranian attacks and the decision to reduce the number of members of the Iranian Embassy in the country and to consider two members of the Iranian diplomatic mission persona non grata, and request their departure from the territory of the State of Kuwait within a maximum period of 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.

Iran's national soccer team has received visas to travel to Mexico, where it will be based during the World Cup, the country's state-sponsored media announced, citing the ambassador in Turkey, where the players are currently located.

Wall Street stocks opened lower on Wednesday, after stock markets took a breather after hitting one record high after another in recent weeks, and amid growing pessimism about the chances for peace in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% to 51,133.36 points, while the broad-based S&P 500 index lost 0.3% to 7,587.32 points.

Iran and the United States accused each other on Wednesday of violating the fragile truce with crossfire in the Gulf, where Tehran's projectiles hit Kuwait's airport and killed one person.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he "would like to meet" Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in an interview published Wednesday.

"I would like to meet him, and we probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out," Trump told the New York Post's "Pod Force One."

Kuwait said it would resume flights for its flagship airline on Wednesday, hours after saying an Iranian attack had forced the airport to close and killed one person.

"The General Authority of Civil Aviation announced on Wednesday the resumption of all Kuwait Airways flights only, from Kuwait International Airport," it said in a statement.

A senior Emirati official on Wednesday called for a unified stance by Gulf countries following renewed attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, which were blamed on Iran.

"In light of Iran's repeated aggression against the brotherly states of Kuwait and Bahrain, a firm, unified and cohesive Gulf stance is imperative. No Gulf state should be left to face these attacks alone, because the security of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states is interconnected, their interests are shared, and their destiny is one and the same," said UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash in a post on X.

Iran's soccer team will arrive early Sunday morning in Mexico to settle into its base camp for the 2026 World Cup, its press service announced on Wednesday.

Lebanon's state-run news agency reported on Wednesday an Israeli shelling near Beirut and attacks in southern Lebanon, on the second day of negotiations in Washington between the two countries.

The NNA reported that a vehicle had been shelled on the Khaldé road, located at the southern entrance to the Lebanese capital.

Iranian drones struck Kuwait International Airport, an attack that left several injured and forced the suspension of air traffic, authorities in the Persian Gulf country, a U.S. ally said Wednesday.

This attack tests the April 8 cease-fire, which has largely held despite sporadic strikes, after more than a month of war triggered by U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran.