Kuwait’s Interior Ministry urged citizens and residents to stay at home from midnight Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday unless travel was absolutely necessary, as Gulf states moved quickly to protect themselves ahead of a U.S. deadline for Iran. The ministry said in a statement shared on X that it was crucial to stay home and avoid going out unless it was absolutely urgent.
Bahrain also moved on Tuesday, announcing that operations at its main port, Khalifa Bin Salman Port, would be temporarily suspended starting early Wednesday. The U.S. State Department told all Americans in Bahrain to shelter in place until further notice. Iranian media, meanwhile, published warnings to residents and citizens crossing bridges and roads in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, saying those areas would be declared closed military zones from 11:00 PM Tehran time until further notice.
The precautions came hours before a deadline laid down by President Donald Trump, who said it would expire at 8 p.m. in Washington without a major diplomatic breakthrough. He said a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran failed to meet his latest deadline. Even before that moment arrived, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the U.S. struck military infrastructure on Kharg Island for the second time, targeting a site described as a key hub for Iranian oil production.
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The moves underscored how quickly the pressure around Iran’s confrontation with the U.S. has spread beyond the immediate battlefield. The Strait of Hormuz remains a critical route through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime, and the warnings in Kuwait and Bahrain show how vulnerable nearby states believe they are if the conflict widens.
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Trump has repeatedly used deadlines tied to threats during the war and then extended them, but this one was presented as final. Iran’s president said 14 million people, including himself, had volunteered to fight, while Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran. For residents in Kuwait, the immediate order was simpler: stay inside, and wait out the night.
