TEHRAN: US Vice President JD Vance warned the truce between Washington and Tehran remained "fragile" on Wednesday (Apr 8) as several Gulf nations endured fresh attacks just hours after the rivals agreed a two-week ceasefire.

The strikes on Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates came as two ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran agreed to temporarily reopen the strategic waterway under threat of annihilation by President Donald Trump.

Both sides claimed victory as the eleventh-hour ceasefire was announced but Iran warned the war was not over until formal terms were negotiated, with talks between Tehran and Washington expected in Pakistan on Friday.

Tehran's demands over future control of Hormuz - a narrow strait through which one-fifth of the world's oil usually passes - uranium enrichment and economic sanctions are at deep odds with Washington.

Vance, speaking in Budapest, said negotiations could turn a "fragile truce" into a deal if Iran was "willing in good faith to work with us".

If not "they're going to find out that the President of the United States is not one to mess around. He's impatient. He's impatient to make progress", Vance said.

Pope Leo was among a chorus of world leaders to call on Wednesday for a full end to the war, which has killed thousands of people, sparked an energy crisis and roiled global markets.

Trump told AFP the deal was a "total and complete victory" for the US, which conducted airstrikes with Israel on Feb 28 that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and ignited a regional war.

Iran also hailed the ceasefire as a win but warned it "does not mean the end of the war" unless its terms were met.

Its powerful Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they had "no trust" in US promises and warned their "finger is on the trigger".

GULF STRIKES

Underscoring the precarity of the situation, Iranian state media announced fresh "missile and drone attacks" Wednesday on US-allied Gulf states UAE and Kuwait in retaliation for airstrikes against its oil facilities.

Kuwait said its oil facilities and power and desalination plants w...