Visa, Mastercard payment services to cease functioning in Cuba from June 6

Payment services operated by Visa and Mastercard will cease functioning in Cuba from June 6, the Central Bank of Cuba said Wednesday.

In a news release, the central bank said that a foreign bank had announced that it would discontinue commercial relationship with Cuban financial and remittance company Fincimex S.A., which processes the transactions.

The central bank said that the interruption was directly related to Executive Order 14404, signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on May 1, which is part of Washington's strategy to suffocate the people of Cuba.

As a result, Cuba will be unable to receive income from the sale of goods and services through international payment cards such as Visa and Mastercard, the central bank said, adding that other payment methods for foreign currency transactions in Cuba remain available, including cash, national prepaid cards, and international cards such as Mir and UnionPay.

Ending the war on all fronts is the top priority of the negotiations between Iran and the United States, Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee said on Wednesday.

Azizi said Iran will never allow the United States and Israel to undermine the unity of the Axis of Resistance, adding Iran firmly believes that the Axis of Resistance will achieve victory.

Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military advisor to Iran's supreme leader, warned Wednesday in a post on social media that Iran will never allow the United States to make excessive demands during negotiations or ceasefire process. He said any act of firing or aggression will be answered with fierce attacks by Iran's missiles and drones.

Also on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said any hostile action will be met with an immediate and decisive response.

He said the Iranian armed forces would carry out defensive counterattacks within the framework of the legitimate right to self-defense to counter U.S. use of its bases to attack Iranian civilian vessels and violate the ceasefire agreement.

He emphasized that the goals the United States failed to achieve through sanctions and war in the past will never be achieved through more wars.

On the same day, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had carried out missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

In a statement published by its official outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said its Aerospace Division attacked the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, in retaliation for the United States' overnight attack on an IRGC communications tower on Iran's southern Qeshm Island.

The IRGC also said its navy fired missiles at a vessel named Panaya, which it described as affiliated with the United States and Israel, in response to a U.S. strike on an Iranian oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz that damaged the vessel's engine room.