The US military says it has launched new strikes on southern Iran, targeting Iranian missile sites and boats attempting to place mines.<\/p>\n
US Central Command said in a statement the strikes were taken in \u201cself-defense\u201d, and were designed \u201cto protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces\u201d.<\/p>\n
Central Command spokesperson Capt Tim Hawkins said the US military \u201ccontinues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n
The strikes come as Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqai said some progress has been made in talks with the US, but a deal to end the conflict \u201cis not imminent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Capt Hawkins said the strikes targeted an area near Bandar Abbas, a southern port city and home of an Iranian naval base that sits on the Strait of Hormuz, according to the New York Times.<\/p>\n
Iranian state media had earlier reported that local officials in Bandar Abbas were investigating after explosions were heard.<\/p>\n
Iran is yet to respond to the latest US strikes. It is unclear what impact they will have on any potential peace agreement between the US and Iran.<\/p>\n
Following the strikes, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal was still possible and pointed to talks on Tuesday between Iran\u2019s top negotiator and foreign minister and Qatar\u2019s prime minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see if we can make progress. I think it\u2019s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it\u2019ll take a few days,\u201d Rubio told reporters during an official visit to India.<\/p>\n
He said President Donald Trump had \u201cexpressed his desire to make it\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s either going to make a good deal or no deal,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
At the weekend, Trump had suggested the sides were close to a deal, but later said he had instructed negotiators \u201cnot to rush into\u201d one, while Rubio had said an agreement could possibly be reached on Monday.<\/p>\n
But Baqai responded: \u201cIt is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion\u2026 But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent \u2013 no-one can make such a claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memorandum of understanding being discussed reportedly involves a 60-day ceasefire extension, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a plan for further negotiations over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n
CBS News, the BBC\u2019s US partner, has reported that US intelligence believes Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei \u2013 who was injured in an Israeli strike on the first day of the war which killed his father and predecessor \u2013 is holed up in an undisclosed location, making communication with his envoys difficult and therefore delaying pace of talks with the US.<\/p>\n
According to US media, the discussions will not immediately lead to a final settlement. Contentious issues will likely be negotiated later, including details of Iranian sanctions relief, the release of frozen Iranian funds, and US demands for Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.<\/p>\n
At the start of the war, Iran is thought to have had about 440kg (970 lbs) of uranium that was enriched up to 60% purity \u2013 a short process away from being enriched further to the weapons-grade 90%, which theoretically could allow it to create a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n
On Monday night, Trump said the enriched uranium would either be \u201cimmediately\u201d turned over to the US, or \u201cpreferably, in conjunction and co-ordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place\u201d.<\/p>\n
US and Iranian forces have observed a ceasefire since 8 April. Iran has maintained controls on Gulf shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the US Navy has sought to blockade Iran\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n
The US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran on 28 February, sparking conflict across the Middle East. Iran responded by attacking Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf, and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz. The move sent oil prices soaring globally.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US military says it has launched new strikes on southern Iran, targeting Iranian missile sites and boats attempting to place mines. US Central Command said in a statement the strikes were taken in \u201cself-defense\u201d, and were designed \u201cto protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces\u201d. Central Command spokesperson Capt Tim Hawkins said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}