United States President Donald Trump says he’s near reaching a “superb deal” with Iran, however Washington and Tehran have been engaged in a brand new alternate of fireplace, dimming hopes of finalising a deal to finish the struggle.
Late on Sunday in a submit on X, the US navy’s Central Command (CENTCOM) mentioned it struck Iranian navy websites over the weekend, and on Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) mentioned it retaliated by targetting a US base within the Gulf area.
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Whereas a ceasefire has been in place between the US and Iran since April 8, the fighters have continued to sporadically assault every others’ navy belongings.
Furthermore, Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and a naval blockade of Iranian ports by the Trump administration has heightened tensions.
As diplomacy geared toward a extra sturdy peace settlement between the 2 international locations drags on, right here’s what we all know concerning the newest assaults between the US and Iran:
What websites has the US attacked?
In its X submit, CENTCOM mentioned it carried out strikes on Iranian radar and drone websites within the metropolis 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 working over worldwide waters,” the command accountable for US navy operations within the Center East mentioned.
“US fighter plane swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a floor management station, and two one-way assault drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM added.
What websites has Iran focused?
In response to Washington’s assaults, the IRGC mentioned on Monday that it struck a US airbase that was used for an assault on a telecommunications tower in southern Iran, in line with Iran’s semiofficial Fars Information Company.
“Following the aggression of the US military on a communication tower on Sirik Island in Hormozgan Province an hour in the past, the IRGC Aerospace Power fighters focused the airbase the place the aggression originated and the expected targets have been destroyed,” the report mentioned.
The IRGC has not specified the placement of the power.
Individually, air defences in Kuwait, the place a serious US base is positioned, intercepted missile and drone assaults on Monday, the state information company KUNA reported with out offering particulars.
Furthermore, in a submit late on Sunday on Fb, a senior official within the Iranian Kurdish celebration Komala accused the IRGC of attacking its base in northern Iraq’s Erbil province.
“As Iran’s Islamic Republic continues its assaults in opposition to Komala, tonight at 22:40 (17:40 GMT), two missiles struck the headquarters of the Kurdistan Toilers Get together (Komala) in Alana Valley,” Amjad Hussein Panahi said.
“For the reason that begin of its struggle with the US and Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran has focused Komala’s bases and headquarters with greater than 81 missiles and drones,” he added.
In accordance with the Rudaw Media Community, a broadcaster in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish area, the Kurdistan Freedom Get together (PAK), one other Iranian Kurdish opposition group primarily based within the Iraqi area, mentioned on Sunday that one in all its bases close to Erbil was additionally struck by an Iranian missile.
For the reason that US and Israel started their struggle on Iran on February 28, Tehran has retaliated by placing US navy bases within the Gulf area and launching strikes on Israel and on Kurdish teams in northern Iraq.
Iran’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei mentioned on Monday that Tehran has a proper to hold out retaliatory strikes on regional “bases and belongings” used to wage assaults in opposition to it after Kuwait reported assaults.
“States have a longtime authorized obligation to not enable their territory or belongings for use for invading different international locations,” Baghaei mentioned a submit on X.
The Iranian official additionally accused the European Union of displaying “selective ethical outrage” in its response, saying a press release by the EU condemning Iran for “exercising its proper to self-defence in opposition to US aggression launched from bases in neighbouring international locations” was “hypocritical and reckless”.
Baghaei didn’t specify which EU assertion he was referring to, however the bloc’s diplomatic service had criticised reported Iranian assaults on Kuwait in a press release a number of days in the past, saying they violate Kuwait’s sovereignty and “pose a severe menace to regional safety and stability”.
Have they attacked one another in the course of the ceasefire?
The US and Iran have continued attacking one another regardless of the ceasefire.
The ceasefire confronted near-immediate pressure when Kuwait mentioned seven drones entered its airspace on April 10, two days after it had begun. It accused Iran and allied armed teams of the assaults.
4 days into the ceasefire and after the collapse of direct talks in Islamabad, the US introduced a naval blockade concentrating on maritime visitors getting into and leaving Iranian ports, heightening tensions.
On April 18, Iranian forces fired on two Indian ships within the Strait of Hormuz that it mentioned didn’t have permission to go by way of the waterway. Maritime tensions escalated additional on April 20 when US forces captured an Iranian container ship close to the Gulf in a transfer Iran described as an “act of piracy“.
On April 22, the IRGC fired on three ships within the strait and captured two overseas container vessels, the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and the Liberian-flagged Epaminondas, saying they lacked authorisation to transit the strait.
Then on Might 4, the United Arab Emirates accused Iran of launching missiles and drones on the nation, triggering a hearth at an oil refinery in Fujairah and wounding three Indian nationals.
On Might 17, a drone strike sparked a hearth on the perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant within the UAE and raised new considerations over a possible new regional escalation.
The UAE didn’t particularly blame Iran however mentioned the drones had been launched from its “western border”. On the identical day, Saudi Arabia additionally mentioned it intercepted three drones fired from Iraqi airspace however didn’t specify the place the drones have been launched from.
On Might 28, CENTCOM mentioned its forces shot down 5 Iranian assault drones and struck a floor management station within the port metropolis of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a sixth. Kuwaiti forces then intercepted a ballistic missile fired in direction of the nation.
The IRGC mentioned it focused the US base accountable for the Bandar Abbas assault and any repeat would result in a “extra decisive response”, the nation’s semiofficial Tasnim Information Company reported.
What’s the most recent on the ceasefire talks?
In a late night time social media submit, Trump didn’t point out the most recent hostilities between Washington and Tehran however mentioned Iran “actually desires to make a great deal”.
Up to now, in line with US media studies, Trump has sought to change a number of phrases of a proposal to finish the US-Israel struggle on Iran.
On Sunday, The New York Occasions reported that Trump’s newest adjustments concerned toughening the phrases of the proposed deal and the US had despatched the brand new framework again to be thought of by Iran.
The Axios information web site reported that Trump needed to bolster a number of factors of the deal that he felt have been vital, corresponding to what to do with Iran’s nuclear materials.
In a Fact Social submit on Sunday, Trump hit again at critics of his dealing with of the battle.
“Simply sit again and calm down, it is going to all work out nicely in the long run – It all the time does!” he wrote.
Trump has mentioned his priorities for any deal embrace Iran agreeing to by no means develop nuclear weapons and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, by way of which about 20 p.c of the world’s oil and liquefied pure gasoline provides transited earlier than the struggle.
Tehran has mentioned repeatedly that it doesn’t intend to construct nuclear weapons. In March 2025, Tulsi Gabbard, then the US director of nationwide intelligence, testified to Congress that Washington “continues to evaluate that Iran will not be constructing a nuclear weapon”.
On Saturday, the Iranian navy’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters reasserted the nation’s management over the strait, warning that overseas industrial and navy vessels could be focused if they don’t adjust to laws governing passage by way of the strategic waterway.
Iran’s skill to shut the Strait of Hormuz represents a extra usable and highly effective deterrent than a nuclear weapon, in line with Colin Clarke, government director of the Soufan Middle.
“The Iranians know this can be a successful card,” Clarke advised Al Jazeera. “They’ll shut down the worldwide economic system by attacking the Gulf states, by closing the strait with mines and shoulder-fired missiles.”
Clarke mentioned the situation has been war-gamed extensively and its implications have been nicely understood contained in the US nationwide safety institution. “There are in all probability warehouses stuffed with papers and studies on this precise situation, laying out the implications, the second- and third-order results and how you can keep away from them.”
He added that the strait provides Tehran a type of leverage that carries not one of the dangers of utilizing nuclear weapons. “For those who use a nuclear weapon, you’re getting into totally totally different territory. However closing down the strait? They’ll try this advert infinitum.”
Iranian Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi, nonetheless, advised the nation’s IRNA information company on Sunday that “dialogue and an alternate of messages are ongoing” with the US.
“It isn’t potential to evaluate till a transparent conclusion is reached,” Araghchi mentioned amid the current hypothesis concerning the negotiations.
“Every thing that’s being mentioned now’s hypothesis and shouldn’t be taken significantly till it’s sure.”
Iran’s chief negotiator had earlier within the day mentioned Tehran wouldn’t comply with any deal that doesn’t safe full Iranian rights.
“There isn’t any belief within the enemy’s phrases and guarantees. Our solely criterion is to attain tangible outcomes earlier than we fulfil our commitments in return,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mentioned after taking his oath as the re-elected speaker of parliament.
Damaged agreements and navy strikes in the course of talks have left Iran with no confidence within the US as a negotiating accomplice, in line with Negar Mortazavi, senior fellow on the Washington, DC-based Middle for Worldwide Coverage.
“I used to be speaking to Iranian sources, they usually mentioned, ‘We go to those talks each time with our finger on the set off, anticipating bombs to fall from the sky,’” Mortazavi advised Al Jazeera.
She mentioned the erosion of belief got here by way of a sequence of US actions that amounted to declarations of struggle, together with the assassination of Normal Qassem Soleimani in 2020, the strikes throughout final 12 months’s nuclear negotiations and the present battle.
“Two wars down, [there has been] plenty of destruction within the area, no achievement and the goalposts maintain shifting,” Mortazavi added.
