- Missile sites, minelaying boats came under attack.
- New strikes threaten hopes of an agreement between the US and Iran.
- Oil markets shook after US strikes in southern Iran.
WASHINGTON: US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines on Monday, US Central Command said, jeopardizing a fragile ceasefire and casting fresh doubt on a deal to end the Middle East war.
The attacks came as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for the latest round of talks to end the months-long conflict and as the Israeli military escalated hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Oil prices fluctuated in the wake of the US strikes, which could threaten any deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where an Iranian blockade has choked global fuel supplies.
“U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats by Iranian forces,” Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.
It gave no details of the strikes, saying only that the targets included missile launch sites and boats trying to “place mines.”
Iran’s state-run television station IRIB reported several loud explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas around midnight local time (2030 GMT Monday).
It added that the situation in the southern port city was normal and that local authorities were investigating the cause of the explosions.
The attacks threatened a cease-fire that began on April 8 as the United States and Iran struggle to reach an agreement to end a war that has rattled the global economy with severe disruption of energy flows.
Oil prices remained below $100 on Tuesday morning, with West Texas Intermediate falling more than 5% while international benchmark Brent crude rose.
Hopes of a deal were dealt another blow when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran has demanded that any peace deal also apply to the fighting in Lebanon.
Trump also said in a social media post that he expected Iran to hand over its enriched uranium to the United States to be destroyed, or have it destroyed in Iran with an international witness.
“The enriched uranium (nuclear dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, in another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, witnessing this process and event,” Trump wrote.
It was not clear whether he thought this would be part of a potential deal with Iran, and the commission he cited was abolished in 1974.
Earlier Monday, Trump said it should be mandatory for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkiye, Bahrain and Jordan to sign the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements brokered in 2020 with nations historically hostile to Israel as part of a peace deal with Iran.
Trump said he had spoken with the leaders of those countries on Saturday about efforts to end the war. Bahrain and the UAE have already signed the agreements along with Morocco and Sudan.
The US-Iranian ceasefire has held as diplomats push for a negotiated settlement, even as Iran has maintained control of Gulf shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the US Navy has tried to blockade Iran’s ports.
While the Abraham Accords were welcomed by some, they remain deeply unpopular in many parts of the Middle East – in part because they fail to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gulf heavyweights such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have said they will never normalize ties with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is created.
‘Going crazy’
Anna Jacobs of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington said the Gulf nations were unlikely to bow to Trump’s latest demands.
“The national security of the Gulf states has been threatened more than ever because of President Trump’s reckless decisions, and he expects Arab states to thank him and normalize relations with Israel, which they will not do at this time,” she said.
Trump’s maximalist demands came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested a deal could be reached later in the day.
“We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to New Delhi.
But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei poured cold water on hopes of a quick final solution.
“It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large part of the issues under discussion,” he told a weekly news briefing.
“But to say that this means that the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.”
‘Critical Moment’
Netanyahu said on Monday that he had ordered the military to step up its offensive in Lebanon and accused Hezbollah of targeting Israeli forces with drone strikes.
“I have ordered an even greater acceleration of our operations,” Netanyahu said in a video statement posted on his Telegram channel.
The Israeli leader said on Sunday that he and Trump had agreed that “any final deal with Iran must eliminate the nuclear threat completely” before peace was achieved.
Iranian officials have stressed that despite long-standing US demands to halt their uranium enrichment, talks on the issue of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program have been postponed until after an initial agreement.
