- The agreement follows Iranian attacks on US military sites.
- Trump had said the US can “complete the job militarily”.
- Each side has accused the other of breaking the ceasefire.
Iran and the United States agreed to end recent hostilities in the Gulf and renew talks on their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a US official said on Sunday, raising hopes of salvaging a tentative peace deal that was under pressure from days of tit-for-tat attacks.
“Technical talks are planned to continue on all areas of the MOU. Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely,” the official said, referring to the 14-point memorandum of understanding agreed on June 17 under which the strait would be reopened to traffic.
Axios, which first reported the cessation of hostilities, citing a senior US official, said talks would resume on Tuesday in Qatar.
A return to diplomacy would follow several days of attacks and counterattacks since an Iranian missile hit a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, with both the United States and Iran accusing the other of violating a temporary ceasefire agreed on June 17.
Iran fired missiles and drones at US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain early Sunday, shortly after President Donald Trump threatened that the Islamic Republic would cease to exist if it did not abide by the agreement to end the war.
Meanwhile, Israel said on Sunday it had once again struck Iran-backed armed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, destroying the underground infrastructure the group used in a village in southern Lebanon. It happened after another strike on Saturday, which closely followed the latest ceasefire agreement with Lebanon on Friday. Iran says the fighting in Lebanon must end if the broader deal is to last.
The US military earlier said it had struck Iran again, hours after a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s main energy shipping route, which Tehran has largely closed for most of the conflict.
“There may come a time when we are no longer able to be reasonable and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully began,” Trump said on social media before the Axios report.
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” he added.
The 14-point interim peace deal was supposed to halt the fighting that the US and Israel started on February 28 and reopen the strait while talks continued on issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
Violence, charges follow peace agreement
A round of mediated talks, led by Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington waived sanctions on Tehran, but fighting has since resumed and intensified.
About an hour after Trump’s remarks, Kuwait’s army said its air defenses responded to missile and drone strikes, while Bahrain said sirens had sounded there.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that its navy and air forces had launched missile and drone operations targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The guards said the US strikes had violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, state-run Press TV said. The IRGC’s naval command said US bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.
A US official confirming that Iran had attacked US facilities told Reuters that there were no reported US casualties or major damage to US sites in the Middle East, but the situation was still unfolding.
Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, where authorities said an Iranian strike damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no injuries reported. Bahrain called on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to hold Iran accountable.
The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles without damage or casualties.
Separately, Qatar said one of its nationals had died after sustaining shrapnel injuries aboard a vessel that went missing on Saturday. Another person was injured in the incident, which was due to “military operations in the area”, the interior ministry said, without giving a location or apportioning blame.
