Iran on Tuesday accused the United States of \u201ca clear violation of the ceasefire\u201d between the two countries after the U.S. launched what it called defensive strikes. These strikes threatened to disrupt intensifying talks aimed at ending the war.<\/p>\n
Two U.S. officials stated that the U.S. military strikes were a direct response to what they described on Tuesday as 24 hours of missile, drone, and small boat launches carried out by Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
The officials reported that the IRGC launched multiple surface-to-air missiles while U.S. aircraft were flying in the area, though no U.S. aircraft were hit. They added that the drones and small boats were capable of laying mines that could threaten U.S. ships and aircraft.<\/p>\n
One official characterized the U.S. strikes as \u201cvery limited\u201d and \u201cvery precise.\u201d<\/p>\n
These attacks occurred even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed reporters in India that a deal could be finalized in \u201ca couple of days,\u201d with negotiators only having \u201cdisagreements over a word, a sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Iran, which has been more cautious about the progress in the talks, issued a strongly worded statement on Tuesday, denouncing the U.S. strikes. Tehran asserted that these actions contravened the seven-week pause in fighting.<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that American forces have \u201ccommitted a violation of the ceasefire in the Hormuz region over the past 48 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran \u201cholds the American regime responsible for all consequences arising from these hostile acts,\u201d the ministry declared, warning that \u201cwithout any doubt,\u201d it would \u201cleave no act of aggression unanswered and will not hesitate in defending the dignity of Iran and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tehran further claimed that by carrying out these \u201caggressive actions\u201d while negotiations were ongoing, the U.S. had \u201conce again demonstrated the bad faith and unreliability\u201d of its administration, both toward Iran and the international community.<\/p>\n
There has been no announcement of any change in the temporary ceasefire, which became effective on April 8. \u201cU.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,\u201d CENTCOM spokesperson Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said late Monday, announcing the strikes.<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s powerful Revolutionary Guard vowed to \u201crespond decisively to any violation of the ceasefire.\u201d According to a statement carried by the semiofficial news agency Fars, it claimed to have shot down an American MQ-9 drone and fired at another U.S. drone and an F-35 fighter jet, forcing them to turn around.<\/p>\n
These strikes are not the first carried out by the U.S. during the ongoing ceasefire. However, this new round of attacks was launched as the two sides intensified talks about ending the war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Monday, Iran stated that an agreement was not imminent after Trump initially raised and then lowered expectations that a deal might be close.<\/p>\n
The presence of Tehran\u2019s top negotiators in Qatar offered another indication of potential progress toward a deal to end the three-month war.<\/p>\n
Iranian news agencies reported that the unfreezing of billions of dollars of Iranian assets held by the Gulf emirate was a central demand of the Iranian team.<\/p>\n
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf departed Qatar on Tuesday after an overnight stay for continued talks, a diplomat familiar with the visit told NBC News. He had arrived Monday with other Iranian officials as Qatar intensified its mediation efforts to secure a deal.<\/p>\n
According to a senior Trump administration official, an agreement on an initial \u201cmemorandum of understanding\u201d could lead to the end of the war and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The proposed framework would then grant the two sides 60 days to reach a full peace deal.<\/p>\n
Iran had effectively closed the crucial trade route, and the U.S. military had blockaded Iranian ports, thereby throttling maritime traffic and disrupting global supplies of energy and food.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Trump introduced a new element into the talks, explicitly linking an Iran deal with the Abraham Accords between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors. He urged several regional nations, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, to join the breakthrough agreement.<\/p>\n
A senior Arab official from a country mentioned by Trump rejected the idea of a package deal, telling NBC News that the primary focus should be on stopping the war with Iran and reopening Hormuz, followed by discussions on a peace deal with Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get this done, then we start looking at resolving other issues,\u201d said the official, who requested anonymity.<\/p>\n
Also on Monday, Trump demanded a resolution to the issue of enriched uranium within Iran, a key sticking point in the ongoing negotiations. The president has repeatedly called for Iran\u2019s current stockpile to be removed from the country and sent to either the U.S. or another location.<\/p>\n
Trump stated on social media that the material \u201cwill 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, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event.\u201d<\/p>\n
A senior White House official told NBC News that this is not a new position for the president and reflects demands already communicated to the Iranians.<\/p>\n
Tehran has consistently maintained that it has no plans to build a nuclear weapon and asserts its right to a nuclear program.<\/p>\n
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since succeeding his slain father, vowed on Tuesday that the U.S. would no longer have any sanctuary in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ticker of time will not go back and nations and countries of the region will no longer be shields of American bases,\u201d Khamenei, who is believed to have sustained injuries in U.S.-Israeli strikes, posted on social media.<\/p>\n
#Iran #US #CeasefireViolation #StraitOfHormuz #MiddleEast #IRGC #Diplomacy #RetaliationThreat #NuclearTalks #InternationalRelations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran on Tuesday accused the United States of \u201ca clear violation of the ceasefire\u201d between the two countries after the U.S. launched what it called defensive strikes. These strikes threatened to disrupt intensifying talks aimed at ending the war. Two U.S. officials stated that the U.S. military strikes were a direct response to what they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}