- Plan to extend ceasefire awaits Trump’s approval.
- The latest attacks highlight the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran.
- US warns Oman against involvement in Hormuz charges.
The United States and Iran agreed on Thursday to extend their ceasefire pending President Donald Trump’s approval after Iran targeted a US air base in Kuwait following US strikes on what Washington called an Iranian drone operation.
According to four sources familiar with the matter, the two sides agreed to a memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire for 60 days, but the plan still needed Trump’s signature.
The agreement will outline how Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium will be managed, which will be among the first issues discussed during the 60-day window, according to a previous report by Axioswho broke the news.
The White House declined to comment.
Iran’s Tasnim The news agency, citing a source close to the negotiating team, denied the report and said the text of the potential MoU has not yet been finalized or confirmed.
It added that claims by Western sources that an MoU between Iran and the US had been finalized were untrue.
However, the reports caused oil prices to reverse course and trade lower on hopes of a potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid natural gas supplies.
Trump has repeatedly said the end of the war is close, but told the media at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he was not yet satisfied with the talks and that the US was not discussing sanctions relief, one of Tehran’s demands.
US and Iran trade shock
The latest attacks, though limited, highlighted the fragility of negotiations to turn the tenuous ceasefire in early April into a lasting deal to end the three-month-old war – which has killed thousands – and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command said US forces had shot down five Iranian attack drones and hit a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a sixth. Kuwaiti forces had then intercepted a ballistic missile fired at the country, which hosts a major US base.
“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” a US official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters earlier.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted the US base responsible for an early morning attack near Bandar Abbas airport and that any repetition would lead to a “more decisive response”, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Kuwait condemned the attack and demanded that Iran immediately stop what it called a serious escalation.
The violence, the second flare-up this week, coincided with Eid ul Adha being celebrated across the region, where several countries have been caught up in the conflict triggered by US and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
In Lebanon – which Iran says must be part of any overall peace deal – Israel said it had begun attacking Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the southern city of Tire and had carried out an attack in the capital Beirut.
The Lebanese army said an attack had killed one of its soldiers, while Israel, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in a push deep into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, said air raid sirens had gone off in the country’s north.
Warning to Oman
The United States on Thursday warned Oman not to get involved in any efforts to impose a toll in the Strait of Hormuz, saying it will punish any partners involved in such a system.
“Oman in particular should know that the US Treasury Department will aggressively target all actors involved – directly or indirectly – in facilitating strait tolls, and all willing partners will be punished,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X.
Trump said no single country wanted control of the waterway and appeared to threaten Oman, with which the United States has decades of military and economic ties.
“It’s international waters and Oman will behave like everyone else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine,” he said on Wednesday.
Oman has not mentioned the idea of joint control of the strait with Iran, with which it says it has discussed free navigation. Tehran expressed solidarity with Oman after what it called “threats by US officials”.
