Iran and US trade air strikes after Trump dismisses report of Hormuz deal

Washington: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it targeted an American airbase after the US military carried out what a Washington official said were strikes on an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, hours after US President Donald Trump rejected a report he was close to a compromise deal with Tehran.

The escalation in hostilities highlighted threats to the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran that took effect in early April, dampening hopes for a peace deal and sending oil prices surging again.

The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the military shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the official said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted a US airbase from which the early morning attack on the control station near Bandar Abbas was launched.

Kuwait, which hosts a large US base, said it was responding to missile and drone attacks without saying where the attacks were coming from.

The US also struck southern Iran on Tuesday, targeting missile launch sites and boats it said were placing mines, which Tehran called a “gross violation” of the tenuous ceasefire.

Ahead of the latest strikes, Trump said he was “not satisfied” with the negotiations with Iran to end their almost three-month war, dampening expectations for an imminent breakthrough.

“They want very much to make a deal. So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it,” Trump said during a meeting with cabinet officials at the White House on Wednesday (US time).

“They’re negotiating on fumes. Maybe we have to go back and finish it,” he added, without elaborating on whether that meant further military action.

Trump’s remarks followed an Iranian state television report on a draft interim peace deal, which said maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz could return to normal within a month of it coming into effect. The White House cast the report as false.

“This report from Iranian-controlled media is not true and the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) they ‘released’ is a complete fabrication,” the White House said in a social media post. “Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out.”

Further dampening prospects for an agreement, Trump said there would be no sanction relief in exchange for Iran giving up its uranium, PBS News reported, citing an interview with the president.

Trump is looking for a settlement that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him with a credible argument that Iran’s nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that’s been politically unpopular for Republicans.

But as things stand, the president also risks finding that closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.

The emerging deal puts off many critical issues for later resolution and has already exposed Trump to fierce criticism – even from some of his own supporters – that Iran’s hard-line leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened.

It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus, and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate’s mood.

Trump has dismissed the idea that the upcoming elections would shape his Iran strategy. “They thought they were gonna outwait me. You know, ‘We’ll outwait him. He’s got the midterms’,” he said.

“I don’t care about the midterms.”

Oil remained lower on the day as traders stayed optimistic that a deal was in sight, even amid conflicting statements from the two sides on the progress of talks.

Other key points of the deal, as outlined by Iran’s IRIB News, included the US lifting its naval blockade on Iranian ports and the US Navy leaving the waters surrounding Iran.

The draft also said Iran and Oman would have a mechanism in place to oversee shipping in the strait. That’s one of the most contentious issues holding up a deal, with the US saying vessels must be allowed free passage. Oman has not commented in recent weeks on Iran, saying the two are in discussions about managing the strait.

“Managing the passage of ships, their inspection and receiving service fees are at the discretion of the Islamic Republic and in partnership and in co-operation with Oman,” the Iranian state TV report said. Iran hasn’t committed to unconditionally reopening the strait, it said.

Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, a country with which the US has decades-long military and economic ties.

“Nobody’s going to control [the strait],” Trump said at the cabinet meeting. “It’s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”

Israel expands Lebanon operation

Meanwhile, the Israeli military told residents across southern Lebanon to leave as it expands its operations there. The statement said the military would “work with extreme force” against Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group.

The warning is the first since a ceasefire that went into effect on April 17, and came amid rising escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah war, with Israeli troops crossing the Litani River, edging closer to the southern city of Nabatiyeh.

The escalation comes two days before Israeli and Lebanese military officials were scheduled to meet at the Pentagon to discuss, among other things, strengthening the ceasefire agreement.