New Delhi:US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in India for the Quad Foreign Ministers Meet, said on Tuesday a deal with Iran was still possible despite new American strikes raising doubts about their fragile ceasefire. “There are some talks going on in Qatar today, so we will see if we can make progress,” he said.
US military conducts ‘self-defence’ strikes in southern IranThe US military said Monday it carried out “self-defence” strikes in southern Iran, including against missile launch sites and boats laying mines, even as President Donald Trump tweeted that talks with Tehran were “proceeding nicely”.
The strikes come as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for the latest round of talks to end the months-long conflict that had seen Iran blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial artery for global energy exports.
US forces were protected from threats by strikesThe strikes were carried out "to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces," but the military was "exercising restraint during the ongoing ceasefire," said Capt Tim Hawkins, spokesman for the US military's Central Command, in a statement.
There was no immediate word on the threats from Iran or what this means for negotiations. Iran issued no official response, sending its parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf to Qatar for talks about the potential deal with the United States
During the war, Qatar was bombarded with Iranian fire and has billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds.Tabnak, a news website believed to be close to former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei, identified four dead Guard troops it said were killed in American strikes on boats in Iran.
Iranian media report explosions near Bandar AbbasIn a separate development, Iranian state television said explosions were heard near the Strait of Hormuz city of Bandar Abbas, which has a military port and a dual-use airport.
The strikes were the latest attacks to shake the weeklong ceasefire in the war. The Strait of Hormuz, through which at one time passed a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded, is effectively in Iran’s chokehold, disrupting global energy markets.
Earlier in the day, Trump said that any deal to end the Iran war must require several more countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the US-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term to normalize relations with Israel.
The proposal arrives as the emerging Iran deal is facing criticism from fellow Republicans who want a tougher line on Iran and could add new diplomatic complications to the negotiations.
Trump cited Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should sign on “immediately.” Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were the first countries to join in 2020 and to recognize Israel diplomatically. He wrote: “After all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together it should be mandatory that all of these Countries at a minimum simultaneously sign onto the Abraham Accords.
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