Iran and US trade attacks after Trump rejects report of Hormuz agreement

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it struck a base used by United States forces in response to US attacks on an Iranian target near the Strait of Hormuz, as a fragile ceasefire comes under growing strain and negotiations to end the war drag on.

“Following this morning’s aggression by the invading US military against a location on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport using aerial projectiles, the American air base that served as the source of the attack was targeted at 4:50 am (0120 GMT),” the IRGC said on Thursday, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

The IRGC did not provide details on the location of the base, though Kuwait’s military said its air defences were responding to an “enemy” attack on Thursday.

The IRGC said it targeted the base in response to what it described as an early morning US attack near Bandar Abbas airport, Tasnim news agency reported.

An unnamed US official told the Reuters news agency that the US military shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port ⁠city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the official who requested anonymity said on Thursday.

Reporting from Iran’s capital Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said despite the latest strikes, “neither the US nor Iran is saying the ceasefire has collapsed.

“This is the third time since the ceasefire’s announcement that they have directly engaged militarily,” he noted.

Strait is ‘international waters’

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump expressed confidence that his administration was making headway in negotiations to end the war, but rejected a report that he was close to a ⁠compromise deal with Tehran.

He dismissed an Iranian state TV report that it had obtained an unofficial draft of an agreement to restore commercial shipping through the strait to pre-war levels within a month, with Iran and Oman jointly managing traffic.

Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway, and appeared to threaten Oman, a country with which the US has decades-long military and ⁠economic ties.

“Nobody’s going to control (the strait),” Trump said. “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.”

Trump added that he was not yet satisfied on a potential deal with Iran, and the US was not discussing easing sanctions on the country.

Oil prices, having fallen more than 5 percent on Wednesday, rebounded after reports of the escalation in hostilities. US crude futures gained more than 3 percent, while stocks fell and the dollar rose.

Trump in ‘very difficult position’

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said Trump’s “rhetoric” would not force Iran to back away from its demands to enrich uranium, wield authority over the strait and see sanctions against it lifted.

“It is obvious Trump, seeking a way out of ⁠this strategic deadlock, alternates between issuing threats and appealing for an agreement,” Azizi said on Wednesday in a post on X.

The Iranian TV report of a framework deal said the US would also lift its blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw ⁠military forces from Iran’s vicinity.

Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, says the main fight between the US and Iran is now on the economic front, with the duel blockades currently in place in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Trump is in a very difficult position. He has inadvertently given Iran a very powerful weapon by closing the Strait of Hormuz, and he’s not willing to risk US ships to try to open it,” Bandow told Al Jazeera.

“It’s going to be hard for him not to make a deal that’s to the satisfaction of Iran,” he added.