United States President Donald Trump says he is close to achieving a “very good deal” with Iran, but Washington and Tehran have been engaged in a new exchange of fire, dimming hopes of finalising a deal to end the war.
Late on Sunday in a post on X, the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck Iranian military sites over the weekend, and on Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated by targeting a US base in the Gulf region.
While a ceasefire has been in place between the US and Iran since April 8, the warring parties have continued to sporadically attack each other’s military assets. Moreover, Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and a naval blockade of Iranian ports by the Trump administration has heightened tensions.
In its X post, CENTCOM said it carried out strikes on Iranian radar and drone sites in the city of Goruk and the island of Qeshm over the weekend. “The measured and deliberate strikes occurred on Saturday and Sunday in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” the command said.
In response to Washington’s attacks, the IRGC said on Monday that it struck a US airbase that was used for an attack on a telecommunications tower in southern Iran, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency. “Following the aggression of the US army on a communication tower on Sirik Island in Hormozgan Province, the IRGC Aerospace Force fighters targeted the airbase where the aggression originated and the predicted targets were destroyed,” the report said.
The ceasefire faced near-immediate strain when Kuwait said seven drones entered its airspace on April 10, two days after it had begun. It accused Iran and allied armed groups of the attacks. On April 18, Iranian forces fired on two Indian ships in the Strait of Hormuz that it said did not have permission to pass through the waterway.
In a late night social media post, Trump did not mention the latest hostilities between Washington and Tehran but said Iran “really wants to make a good deal”. According to US media reports, Trump has sought to change several terms of a proposal to end the US-Israel war on Iran. The New York Times reported that Trump’s latest changes involved toughening the terms of the proposed deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the country’s IRNA news agency on Sunday that “dialogue and an exchange of messages are ongoing” with the US. “It is not possible to judge until a clear conclusion is reached,” Araghchi said. Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf earlier said Tehran would not agree to any deal that does not secure full Iranian rights, adding “There is no trust in the enemy’s words and promises.”
Source: www.aljazeera.com