Attacks traded for a second day, undermining shaky ceasefire

Dubai/Washington: President Donald Trump said the US and Iran could sign a peace deal as soon as this weekend that would reopen shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, but Tehran countered that it had not reached a final decision on an agreement.

The agreement, if finalised, would be the most significant diplomatic breakthrough yet to end the three-month-old war, which has killed thousands of people and sent global energy prices sharply higher.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Tehran was likely to approve the agreement, though it has yet to give a formal response.

But Iranian media reported Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying that large parts of the negotiating text have been finalised and that Iran would not compromise on its “red lines”.

“Iran has not yet reached a final conclusion on an agreement,” he said.

Since mid-March, the US president has repeatedly claimed that a deal with Iran to end the war is close. CNN reported earlier this week that Trump has claimed at least 38 times – in social media posts, public appearances and phone calls with the media — that a deal was close or Iran was desperate to make one.

After Trump’s announcement, sounds of explosions were heard near the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas early on Friday. Shortly after, state media reported that Iranian forces had prevented a tanker from entering the Strait of Hormuz without coordination to pass.

Earlier, just hours after he threatened to escalate the war, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had made a “great settlement of the war with Iran”.

He said Vice President JD Vance would attend a US-Iran deal signing, which was expected to take place in Europe this weekend, and that the Strait of Hormuz would open as soon as it was signed.

US stocks rallied to record their best day in two months and oil prices fell on Trump’s announcement.

When asked whether Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had approved the deal, Trump said: “I understand the answer is yes.”

Trump described the deal as “a very strong memorandum of understanding”, adding it was “a little conceptual, but it’s something that’s going to get done”.

Trump has repeatedly said that any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon.

“Most importantly we have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which was the whole purpose of what we had to go through to get this. So it was a very big thing,” he said on Thursday.

Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Thursday. Israel was “not a party to the memorandum of understanding”, and Netanyahu expressed his appreciation for Trump’s commitment to securing a final deal that includes resolving the issue of enriched nuclear material, according to a readout from Netanyahu’s office.

The US president said he had also spoken with the leaders of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and others. He said he would soon speak to Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier, Trump said on social media that the agreement had been approved by “the highest level” of Iranian leadership, as well as other countries in the region including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Washington time (Friday morning AEST).

Just hours before that, Trump had posted that the US would be “hitting Iran … VERY HARD TONIGHT”.

“At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela,” he said online.

In an interview with Fox News’ Fox & Friends on Thursday morning (Washington time), Trump added: “There will be more bombing tonight. It will be bigger, bigger, more powerful.”

“My preference has always been – take Kharg Island … my preference would be that. I don’t know that America has the stomach for it,” he said.

Trump later said a US military operation against Kharg Island was off the table for now.

The two sides have traded strikes throughout the week, straining the ceasefire announced in April. Still, Iranian and Western sources said earlier on Thursday that efforts to reach an interim deal ​to end hostilities had intensified.

Three Iranian sources said a political understanding had been reached, but some issues remained to be discussed in detail, including a mechanism for the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.

It was unclear whether such a deal would satisfy critics within Trump’s Republican Party who say that any agreement must close Tehran’s path to developing a nuclear weapon.

The escalation in hostilities began earlier this week with the downing of a US Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, which sparked a series of tit-for-tat attacks across Iran and on US bases around the region.

It was the most serious threat to the fragile ceasefire, dampening hopes for a swift end to the war that started in late February with massive US-Israeli joint air strikes on Iran.

The US military said its latest attacks on Thursday targeted “military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defence sites across Iran” in response to what it called Tehran’s “unwarranted and continued aggression”.

Iranian news agencies reported explosions in several cities across the country of 93 million, including Sirik, Kargan, Bandar Abbas, Minab, and Karaj near the strait, as well as Varamin far to the north, closer to the Caspian Sea.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the move as an effort to force Iran into a deal to end the conflict.

“We will strike them hard tonight, and hopefully Iran makes a good decision,” he said. “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we’ll negotiate with bombs.”

US Central Command announced the strikes were complete about four hours after they began, soon after midnight in Tehran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had launched counter-attacks on 18 US military targets at airbases in Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.

It later said it had also targeted the al-Azraq air base in Jordan for a second night running, firing 12 ballistic missiles at the US base.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said an 11-year-old girl suffered minor injuries, while vehicles caught fire and homes were damaged in Hamad Town and the capital Manama, after debris fell from Iranian drones that were intercepted and destroyed. Kuwait said it briefly closed its airspace due to an Iranian attack.

Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said the US would receive a more severe response than before if it attacked Iran again.

“Considering recent US threats against Iran’s oil infrastructure, either oil and gas exports are for everyone or they will be available for no one,” the command said in a statement carried by state media, adding the war would become more widespread and extensive, causing insecurity in the region.

Iran’s top joint military command also warned it would fire on any vessel trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed for months. Iranian media said two US ships were fired on.

Centcom denied that the strait was closed or any of its ships were struck, saying commercial ships were still transiting the strait despite Iran’s threats.

The US has maintained its own blockade on Iranian ports and said on Wednesday it had fired on a vessel in the Gulf of Oman that flouted its instructions and was carrying oil from Iran. India said three missing seafarers from the vessel had died.

The US and Iran have traded fire several times since the tentative ceasefire took hold, even as negotiators have unsuccessfully sought to end the war, now in its fourth month.

Early on Wednesday, the US military targeted air defences and radar sites around the Strait of Hormuz after Monday’s downing of a US attack helicopter near the strategic waterway.

Iran responded with missile and drone attacks on US bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. A US official said there was no significant damage.

The war has killed thousands and disrupted roughly a fifth of global supply of crude oil and liquefied natural gas, sending prices sharply higher.

Fighting continued in a parallel war in Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 13 people on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said, while Hezbollah claimed fresh attacks against Israeli forces.

The Israeli military said two “launches” were identified falling adjacent to an area where Israeli troops are operating in southern Lebanon, after sirens sounded in several areas of northern Israel early on Thursday.

Tehran’s demands include an end to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, the lifting of sanctions on Iran, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets, and recognition of its control of the strait.

Trump says Iran must end its restrictions on shipping through Hormuz. He also says any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any such ambition.

Reuters

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