Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in a statement carried by Iran's state-run IRNA news agency denied launching attacks on Persian Gulf states on Thursday after Kuwait's announcement. "If these reports published by the media are true, without a doubt it is the work of the Zionist enemy or America," the Revolutionary Guard said.

However, the Guard also launched repeated attacks on civilian targets in the war and could also be using Shiite militias in Iraq to launch assaults, providing deniability for Iran ahead of the talks.