The United States and Iran have reached an outline agreement to extend their ceasefire pending the approval of President Donald Trump, Axios reported on Thursday, after Iran targeted a U.S. air base in Kuwait in the wake of U.S. strikes on what Washington said was an Iranian drone operation.
According to the report by Axios, the two sides agreed on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the truce and launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program but the plan still needed Trump’s signoff.
There was no immediate confirmation of the report which prompted oil prices to reverse course and trade lower.
Trump has repeatedly said the end of the war is close but told media at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday he was not yet satisfied by the negotiations and that the U.S. was not discussing easing sanctions, one of Tehran’s demands.
U.S. AND IRAN TRADE BLOWS
The latest attacks, while limited, highlighted the fragility of negotiations to turn the tenuous early-April ceasefire into a lasting agreement to end the three-month-old war, which has killed thousands, and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces had shot down five Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a sixth. Kuwaiti forces had then intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the country, which hosts a large U.S. base.
“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” a U.S. official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters earlier.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted the U.S. base responsible for an early-morning attack near Bandar Abbas airport and that any repeat would lead to a “more decisive response”, Tasnim news agency reported.
Kuwait condemned the attack and demanded that Iran immediately halt what it called a serious escalation.
The violence, the second flare-up this week, coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha celebrated across the region, where multiple countries have been caught up in the conflict triggered by U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
Mediator Pakistan said its foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, would meet U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Friday, although the significance of his visit was unclear.
In Lebanon, which Iran says must be part of any overall peace deal, Israel said it had begun striking infrastructure of Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in the southern city of Tyre and had carried out a strike in the capital Beirut.
The Lebanese army said a strike had killed one of its soldiers, while Israel, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people with a push deep into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, said air raid sirens had gone off in its north.
WARNING TO OMAN
The U.S. warned Oman on Thursday not to get involved in any effort to impose a toll in the Strait of Hormuz, saying it will penalize any partners involved in such a system.
“Oman, in particular, should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved - directly or indirectly - in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X.
Trump said that no single country would have control over the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, with which the U.S. has decades-long military and economic ties.
“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,” he said on Wednesday.
Oman has not mentioned the idea of joint control of the strait with Iran, with which it says it has discussed freedom of navigation. Tehran expressed solidarity with Oman after what it called “U.S. officials’ threats”.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
